LG Electronics, in partnership with its distributor Hotpoint Appliances, has boosted Lions SightFirst Eye Hospital’s efforts to eliminate preventable and treatable blindness with a Kshs 1.3 million donation. The cash will be used to assist patients undergoing corneal grafting to restore their sight.
Corneal grafting is an operation whereby the healthy cornea of a deceased person is used to replace the impaired cornea of the blind or visually handicapped patient. Speaking shortly after presenting the donation, LG East Africa Managing Director, Mr Josep Kim, said the gesture was inspired by the fact that sight is a precious gift of life.
“Sight is the most important asset for every human being. It is the most precious gift that you can give anyone and that is why as an organization, we have taken up this noble course to help patients have their sight restored,” said Mr Kim. As well, Hotpoint Appliances Managing Director, Mr. Shailesh Kanani, mentioned in his speech “We congratulate the medical team at this hospital for performing this miracle in giving sight to the blind. We wanted to be parts of making this happen. We would also like to thank all our valued customers who purchased over 3,000 TVs to make this contribution possible. You have all contributed to this valuable course.”
Corneal blindness is attributable to many factors. These includes hereditary problems such as thinning and steepening of the cornea; scarring of cornea after trauma; ulceration or infection; surgery, ageing process or corneal disease. Corneal transplants rely solely on cornea donations. Corneas can be harvested from deceased persons with the consent of their families within six hours of death.
However, they need to be screened for transmittable infections such as HIV and Hepatitis. Hotpoint Appliances has a long standing partnership with Lions Sight First Hospital supporting them in numerous courses. “We hope that through the media, there will be high awareness of the importance to donate cornea, since donation level is low as of now. We are urging Kenyan to pledge donating their cornea,” said Mr Kim.
LG will partner with Hotpoint to support to donate for the cause every year. LG Electronics will support other Eye hospitals in East Africa with its partners in several countries in the region. LG Electronics has also recently made donations in Rwanda to an association of widows of the 1994 genocide. They donated televisions and food to cater for 150 orphans for the rest of the year. LG representatives visited the orphans and shared a meal with them.
