BLINDWALK 2025

A 500m Blind Walk was organised in connection with World Sight Day on the 9th of October at the Sophia School campus by Project Vision in collaboration with Essilor Luxottica Foundation and the Sisters of Notre Dame, Sophia School students, staff and Sri Rakum School for the Blind. More than 200 persons participated in the event.

Mr. Narasimha, CEO of Essilor, flagged off the 500m Blind Walk in the Sophia campus which ended with a pledge to support the causes of the visually challenged persons and a pledge to donate eyes.

It was touching to see visually challenged students walking in the front with their white canes, followed by the blindfolded sighted participants (Sophia High School students, Principals, Interact teachers, staff and management and other schools and Essilor staff) who held on to their shoulders to follow and find their way.

Blind Walks are the largest eye donation campaigns andBlind Walk in Bangalore is here from 2014.

This idea of Blind Walk by Project Vision is:

1. To express solidarity with the visually challenged people with the caption ‘Feel Being Blind’. Thus people are motivated to donate their eyes.

2. To create Vision Ambassadors who will coordinate with the eye banks and the deceased family. Despite having pledges done, many can't take the steps for actual donation, when a death happens in their family. The answer is to have Vision Ambassadors.

3. To break the myths surrounding eye donations. Anyone of any age can donate their eyes. The face will not be disfigured due to eye donation, which can be done after death at home itself through a simple operation.

4. The 12 th edition of Blind Walk has thus focused attention on the issues of the visually challenged and promotion of eye donation. This movement is particularly relevant for India since it has 15 million blind persons and 3 million of these visually challenged persons could see again through eye donation. In India last year despite 9 million deaths there were only 70,000 eye donors as per National Program for the Control of Blindness (NPCB). There is a shortage of corneas in most countries too.