On April 5, 2007, Mrs. Nguyễn Thị Hoa living in Con Thoi commune of Ninh Binh province’s Kim Son district became the first person in Vietnam to voluntarily donate her cornea after her death.
Since then, the Vietnam Eye Bank has received 841 corneal donors from 17 provinces and cities in the country. In which, Ninh Binh has been the locality with the highest number of donors in the country with 398 donors, Kim Son district alone has 380 people.
To achieve that result, the district Red Cross Association has coordinated with the Vietnam Eye Bank to organize training courses for improving knowledge and skills in campaigning for corneal donation for more than 1,000 volunteers.
Amongst the volunteers, there were many Catholic and Buddhist dignitaries. They are priests, heads of the pastoral council of parishes and sub-parishes, and Buddhist monks and nuns in the district.
From 2007 to present, Kim Son district has mobilized 11,758 people registered to donate corneas upon death, out of over 50,000 people registered to donate in the country. Typical localities have practically contributed in the corneal donation movement are communes of Con Thoi, Van Hai, Kim My, Dinh Hoa, Kim Tan, and Kim Dinh.
At a training course to improve knowledge on propaganda and campaigning for corneal donation held in Ninh Binh province
Another locality that has carried out the effective communicating work on the corneal donation is Nam Dinh province. During a thanksgiving ceremony for cornea donors in Bui Chu diocese held in December 2020, Assoc. Prof., Dr. Phạm Ngọc Đông, Deputy Director of the Central Eye Hospital expressed gratitude to 89 cases of corneal donation in Nam Dinh province in 2020, with all of them were Catholic people. "Thanks to their corneas, many patients with corneal disease have found light and returned to the normal life," Assoc. Prof., Dr. Phạm Ngọc Đông shared.
According to Director of the Central Eye Hospital Nguyễn Hữu Hoàng, with the proactive response and participation of dignitaries, priests, heads of the pastoral council of parishes and sub-parishes, and lay Catholics in the communicating work, the number of corneal donors in Nam Dinh province has increased quite rapidly. While there were only 11 cornea donors in the province before 2017, from the beginning of 2020, more than half of 154 cornea donors in the country came from Nam Dinh.
Families whose relatives donated their corneas after death at thanksgiving ceremony for cornea donors in Bui Chu diocese held in December 2020
