Image driving through a blizzard with a windshielf covered in ice. Then imagine doing it for your entire life.

That's what it's like to be corneally blind. The cornea is the eye's windshield, but it is susceptible to injury and disease that cause a permanently clouded state. The good news is that a routine 30-minute operation to implant healthy corneas restores sight to children and adults suffering from corneal blindness in the United States. The success rate is 90%.

But in Bangladesh, more than 500,000 corneally blind individuals have no hope for normal lives because the surgery is not available to them. If it were, they could go to school, learn a trade, provide for their families, and improve the economic status of one of the world's poorest nations.

The Rotary Club of Towsontowne (near Baltimore) is committed to making that happen by creating a self-sustaining program that can be adapted in other developing nations. We are seeking financial support from other Rotary clubs, individuals, and organizations.

The project will increase the capabilities of the eye bank in Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, and will train 4,000 medical students and alumni volunteers, called Sandhanis, to obtain permission from families of the deceased to use their healthy corneas.

The Sandhanis then prepare the corneas for delivery to the eye bank, via the excellent local bus services, where they are made ready for surgery by ophthalmologists. One third of the patients will pay on a sliding scale. That income will cover surgeries for the remaining two thirds who cannot afford them.

Rotary is an international service organization of professional women and men who live by the the motto "Service Above Self". We hope you agree that every person deserves to live a productive life, even when it means total strangers are required to get them started. Thank you.

TOWSONTOWNE ROTARY FOUNDATION INC

Fundraising Campaigns

Rotary Project to Reduce Corneal Blindness in Bangladesh