Overview
The Eye Bank Association Kerala is the fore runner Eye Bank in the private sector in India which started its activities in 1970 under the Travancore – Cochin Literacy Scientific & Charitable Societies Registration Act XII of 1955. The Eye Bank is situated in the 2nd Floor of St.Alphonsa Block at Little Flower Hospital & Research Centre, Angamaly. The Mission of the association is to continuously educate general public about preventing blindness caused due to corneal disorders, motivate them to donate eyes and facilitate availability of cornea in the shortest possible time wherever cure is required.
Many eminent personalities of that time, joined hands together to start "The Eye Bank Association" to collect donor eyes for cornea transplantation. Misinterpreted regional beliefs, wrong concepts and the ignorance of eye donation among people restricted them from donating eyes in 1970s. The main activity of the association that time was the propagation of the message on eye donation. It took almost 25 years to bring the awareness in the community.
During the initial stage of Eye Bank, though we collected thousands of donor's pledge forms, we could not receive more notifications to the eye bank. Hence 'Eye Donation Forum' was started in different parishes and in many organizations in Kerala. Involvement of such organization played a vital role in the development of the Eye Bank Association Kerala. Now the Eye Bank collects yearly more than 1600 corneas and distributes more than 1200 corneas for corneal transplantation all over India.