The RegisterNo.
- Patient
- Blind from a scarred cornea, and waiting
- Cornea
- Given by a donor’s family
- Surgeon
- Ready, at a partner hospital
- Cost to the Patient
- Nothing
- Sponsor
- You
Measure
The surgeon marks a circle about 8 millimeters across, around the scar.
Remove
The clouded disc of cornea is cut free and lifted out.
Replace
A clear cornea, given by a donor’s family, is set in its place.
Stitch
Nylon stitches finer than a hair hold it. Often there are sixteen.
Light
As the eye heals over the following months, light reaches it again.
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That is what $200 does.
Sponsor a Transplant
Some blindness is only a cloud.
When the cornea scars, light can’t get into the eye. A donated cornea and one operation let it back in. We pay for it, so the patient pays nothing.
In partnership with the Rotary Club of Plano Metro and Rotary Club of Hoshiarpur Mid Town
The cure already exists.
A corneal transplant is one of the oldest and most common transplants in medicine. What stands between a patient and their sight is a donated cornea, and the money for the operation.
- People in India blind from corneal disease that could have been prevented or treated
- About 900,000
- Corneal transplants in India in 2023, against a need of about 100,000 a year
- 29,057
- Pays for one transplant here: the operation, the cornea and the medicines
- $200
2023 estimates. Gupta et al., British Journal of Ophthalmology, 2025; Parihar, Annals of the National Academy of Medical Sciences (India), 2024. All sources
Here is that operation.
Every transplant is numbered.
The clubs keep a running register, and each number is a person who can see again. A few of them, shared with their consent:
How a gift becomes sight.
Five steps, and the patient pays for none of them.
01
The Donor
After a death, a family agrees to eye donation. An eye bank team recovers the eyes, ideally within six hours.
02
The Eye Bank
The cornea is checked and kept in storage fluid, where it stays usable for about 4 to 14 days.
03
The Patient
Found through Rotary clubs, partner hospitals and word of mouth across Punjab and the states around it.
04
The Surgeon
Operates at a partner hospital, under a signed agreement with the clubs. The operation takes one to two hours.
05
The Check-Up
Follow-up visits watch the graft as it heals, and the case goes into the register under its number.
Your $200 pays for the operation, the cornea and the medicines.
Sponsor a Transplant