The Initiatives

The primary objective of the Netram Foundation will be achieved through online and offline activism. While the offline initiative will involve physical campaigns and micro-campaigns in various parts of the country in collaboration with renowned hospitals and organizations, online initiatives will be targeted towards the more tech savvy Gen X of our country.

Proposed System

As a solution the Netram Foundation has planned to create systems catering to various needs. Closely inter-linked to create a coherent impact, the combined set is termed as Social Experiments.

• Awareness  - to create targeted awareness for eye donation
  • NGO 2.0 – Online NGO (Read More)

 

• Resources  - to make eye donation process accessible and easy
  • 24X7 SMS Helpline
  • Netram call Centre (Read More)

“Read More” portion of NGO 2.0 (can be on the same page or a different page)

NGO 2.0

About
NGO 2.0 is a tool to create a high level of targeted awareness about eye donation and to make social service easy, accessible to all, innovative, interactive and fun.

The concept
The next level of functioning of an NGO aimed at redefining the way individuals and corporations render social service. The term “NGO 2.0” is analogous to the name “Web 2.0”. Similar to Web 2.0, NGO 2.0 is an interactive and powerful tool for social work and social service using an unconventional novel method.

In this approach to social service we have tried to replicate most of the activities and functions of a conventional NGO to online activities and campaigns to create a quantifiable impact in the least possible time. Delineating the causes of limited reach of the conventional approach we have tried to abolish some of the major roadblocks that hinder people interested in rendering social service from actually being able to do it.

NGO 2.0 is a focused tool to convert small effort done by users, into measurable impact in terms of awareness. Anyone can contribute with any amount of effort.

Features of NGO 2.0

• No registration/ membership fees, no hidden fee.
• Physical presence is not mandatory, online presence will contribute enough
• Accomplish more in less time by opting for online activities to help the society
• Uses latest and popular technology as the framework
• Completely user driven
• Customizable user level experience

NGO 2.0 – In detail

With adequate offline and online infrastructure Netram Foundation is planning to develop a supporting infrastructure to streamline and boost the performance of the process of conventional system of Eye Donation in India.

The proposed system utilizes the power of conventional media such as print, and electronic and social media by integrating the two utilising the power of IT to facilitate best in class solution to create targeted awareness.

Type of system
The system is a collaborative and social online application with various interactive modules which communicating with each other to interchange meaningful data to accomplish certain goals.

Framework/Platform
The system will use various open source technologies such as LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySql, PHP) architecture, HTML, CSS, Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax) to develop the core application and various major social APIs, such as Facebook’s Open graph API, Twitter’s APIs, Google’s GData APIs, OpenID etc. to design integration points with popular online social services.

Specifications
The application will be accessible at http://www.eyedonation.in and http://www.beyondpledge.com.

The system will work as a central repository for all information related to the human eye, and eye donation in India. This will include complete details of eye banks/eye hospitals, vision-related diseases, related therapies and latest trends in the field of eye treatment/transplant.

The system has been designed as a set of various online modules integrated in the form of an application. These modules are highly intuitive and interactive in nature and they serve multiple purposes. The most important of these functions is to replicate activities done in a traditional NGO to online activities. The main aim of the system is to become a platform that can be used by any user to help create awareness on eye donation. The application is user-centric and responds to the way the user interacts with the system modules to generate the desired set of output information.

 

 

Some of the modules of the system are

• User registration and authentication module
• User profile management
• User discussion module
• Online awareness test for eye donation
• Nearest eye bank locator
• Information about the human eye, related diseases and therapies
• Online and offline Micro campaigns

 

How it works
To generate targeted awareness and to capture audience the system has taken its roots from various proven marketing strategies; one of these is Multi Level Marketing (MLM). The system offers a flexible approach to the users so that they can decide their roles and responsibilities within the organization on their own.

The user can decide if he wants to use the system as:-

1.  Information desk/ learning tool: - The user may restrict himself to using the system for knowledge enhancement with updated information on everything related to the human eye and eye donation in India.

2. Online social service tool: – The user may expand his horizon and involvement by registering to support the cause and participate in online activities to spread awareness on everything related to the human eye, eye donation in India, and methods and strategies to enhance the rate of cornea transplant in our country.

As information desk/ learning tool

The system will contain accurate, detailed and updated information about

• Anatomy of the human eye
• Vision-related diseases
• Cure and therapies related to eye disease
• Eye banking and information related to eye banks/ hospitals
• Eye donation and its procedure in detail etc.

As online social service tool (NGO 2.0)

To use http://www.eyedonation.in and http://www.beyondpledge.com as an online social service tool a user has to complete the following steps:-

1. Registration and authentication
The system NGO 2.0 is a specialized social application which will enable people to render social service in an innovative, interactive and fun way, while still doing the activity that they like doing most, networking with other people online. So the expected audience will comprise of people who are interested in supporting the cause.

 

• A user will need to register with the system by providing basic information about himself such as:-

 

• • Full Name
  • Desired username and password
  • Date of Birth
  • Gender
  • Email id
  • Mobile number

• The system is capable of verifying the authenticity of a user by

 

• • Email verification
  • Mobile SMS verification

2. Customizing the system

• After a successful registration process the user gets full access to the system and can customize it as per his requirements.

 

• The user can customize the following:-

 

• • Type of profile: The user can complete his profile and participate in various micro-campaigns as per his interests. At the same time the system will be able to suggest micro-campaigns to the user based on his interests as mentioned by him in his profile. A typical user may be a teacher, student, IT professional, company/institute owner, shopkeeper, homemaker etc.

 

• • Type of role: The type of role determines how a user wants to help the society. Users will be able to choose any one of the following roles:

• • • Online member
    • Online and offline member
    • Dedicated and verified Member (Executive member)

 

• After completing the authentication procedure users will need to participate in an online Eye donation awareness test. Upon successful completion a certificate will be generated which will convert a user to a Certified Eye Donation Awareness Associate with the Netram Foundation.

3. Participation to support the cause

To support the cause and to spread awareness about eye donation a user can participate in various Micro Campaigns that the system will automatically offer as per his profile and roles.

 

 

Read More portion of the “SMS Helpline”

SMS Helpline

A significant realisation through the survey was that in India the awareness campaigns are largely encompassing two facets of the eye donation process. These are:-

• Motivating individuals to donate their own eyes.

 

• Pledging eyes by registering for a Pledge/ Donation card from nearest eye bank and ensuring the possession and safety of such card.

While the current system has been able to infuse some awareness into the people, due to certain limitations there has been negligible increase in the number of people turning up for eye donation despite a large number of motivated people. Broadly, these limitations are:-

• Absence of a dedicated, nationwide round-the-clock helpline that enables callers to get first-hand information about the nearest accredited eye bank.

• Inability of the campaigns to provide a suitable platform for obtaining pledge card without investing too much time.

 

• Inability of the campaigns to provide instant and accurate information about the process of eye donation.

Purpose:  To use 91-8570712345 as a central repository for details of all accredited eye banks and their contact related information. It is an enhancement to the current helpline 1919 which has the following limitations :-

• It works in NCR only.

 

• It is accessible through BSNL/MTNL phones only.

As a technological enhancement a 10 digit SMS Help line can do wonders. The primary reasons for establishing SMS Helpline are:-

• With over 729 Million and growing mobile phone users it becomes easily accessible to a phenomenally large audience.

 

• It works 24X7.

• It takes less than a minute to find appropriate information about the nearest accredited eye bank.

 

• Compared to short codes like 5XXXX it is cost effective (each SMS to this 10 Digit SMS Helpline will cost like a normal SMS to the user).

• System can serve multiple requests simultaneously.

 

• Synchronized with central database so that the latest and best information will be available all times.

How it works

All a user is needed to do is to send their nearest postal code to 91-8570712345 as SMS and the application will return the contact details of nearest accredited eye bank.

 

 

 

 

 

Read more portion of the “Netram Call Center”

Netram Foundation Call Centre

Netram Foundation call centre is a concept call centre specifically designed for needs of eye banking, eye donation and related fields. Main purposes to be served by this call centre will be:-

1. To provide information about eye donation, its process, and eye banks to the user who has requested for it with the help of counsellors.

 

1. To work as a technical extension of HCRP (Hospital Cornea Retrieval Program), where professional Grief Counsellors will counsel and motivate people over phone, and will provide information related to eye donation.

As Information Helpdesk
Purpose: This service is primarily for people who want to get information about the process of eye donation or the location or contact number of eye banks.

How it works: The person who wants to gain information on eye banking and donation process will need to call the helpline number. Professional counsellors will help him in getting informed about the cause.

Process of Netram Call Centre (Information Help Desk) Helpdesk)

(Process diagram of Netram call centre as Information helpdesk)

As Greif Counselling Helpline

Purpose: This service is primarily for people who want to motivate others but are not able to do so due to interpersonal skills or other reasons. In case of information of possibility of eye donation due to sudden demise or death due to natural causes of any person in the viscinity, such members can call the helpline and intimate details of Next of Kin who can be contacted by trained Grief Counsellors in order to facilitate eye donation.

How it works: The member who is not able to convinve the Next of Kin to donate the eyes of the deceased can call the helpline and provide basic details in respect of himself, the deceased and the Next of Kin of the deceased. These details would include personal particulars and cause and time of death of the deceased in order to correctly determine the suitability of cornea for a transplant.

Professional Grief Counsellors will take over the task of counselling the Next of Kin and convince them to facilitate donation of eyes of the deceased.

The process of Grief Counselling is illustrated below:-