The Lions Blog

Check out how Lions around the world are making headlines by serving their communities.

• TEXAS, USA:  80-year-old Lion skydives for the first time to help fundraising efforts for the League City Lions Club.

• CANADA:  Fairmont Lions Club are getting ready to open new community center.

• GHANA:  Ghana Lions Club organizes free ear screenings for Cape Coast students.

• UNITED KINGDOM:  Witney Lions Club’s first Music Festival fundraising event was a big success.

• WASHINGTON, USA:  Local Lions preparing Flags for First Graders event for over 6,000 area students.

• ZAMBIA:  Kasenshi Lions Club providing free medical screenings to low-income residents.

Has your Lions club been featured in the local news recently? Share your story!

New members join Lions clubs to participate in local volunteer work that serves the community. In order to keep your members satisfied, it’s important to align your club activities with your community’s needs.

Assess your club and your community through these valuable options:

• Use the How Are Your Ratings? survey to obtain feedback from your members. Find out what matters most to your members, and identify your club’s strengths and weaknesses. This survey also helps identify small problems before they become larger issues.

• Conduct a Community Needs Assessment to identify any unmet needs within your community. Organize your projects to help meet these needs. Service projects that have a direct positive impact on your community can help encourage other community members to join Lions club.

• Participate in the Club Excellence Process (CEP), a fun, interactive workshop that helps your club develop goals and create action plans to achieve them.

How does your Lions club identify and meet the needs of your community?

Leos in Malaysia organized Mission Leo Possible, an event that involved 20 teams racing to solve and complete four different tasks. The event took place at a large shopping mall, and afterward, the organizing committees and Leo members visited an orphanage home to deliver food and other supplies.

Not only do Leo clubs offer youth volunteer opportunities to young people in the community, but they also help young people learn teamwork and leadership skills while building strong friendships.

Watch the video above to see the Leos in action. How does your Leo club help young people build positive skills?

Eyeglass recycling is one of the most well-known sight services that Lions clubs organize worldwide in the fight against blindness. But what happens to the eyeglasses once they are collected?

1. Lions place eyeglass collection boxes at various locations around their community, including libraries, optometrists’ offices, schools and banks.

2. Lions ship the eyeglasses to the nearest Eyeglass Recycling Center. Trained volunteers then sort, clean and determine prescription strengths of the glasses.

3. Lions package the prepared eyeglasses and store them until they are needed for eyeglass-dispensing missions, which often take place in developing nations for people who do not have access to the proper eye care.

4. Eye care professionals work with trained Lion volunteers at the mission sites to perform vision screenings. They provide the appropriate recycled eyeglasses, free of charge, to children and adults in need.

May is Recycle for Sight Month! How long has your Lions club been collecting recycled eyeglasses in your community?

Every year, hundreds of thousands of infants are born with or soon develop cataract, a clouding of the lens of one or both eyes.  While the disease occurs worldwide, it is 10 times more common in developing countries. Fortunately, the disease can be treated and even prevented with early detection, surgery in a well-equipped facility, and frequent follow-up eye and health care visits.  But for families in many poor communities in Africa and Asia, a child’s cataract often is not detected or the family cannot afford to access specialized, frequent follow-up care required.

This was the case for 7-year-old Pradip Tigga of rural West Bengal, India. “It was really hard to take Pradip to private hospital because of the financial problems,” said Pradip’s mother. Because of cases like Pradip’s and others like it, Bausch + Lomb and Lions Clubs International Foundation (LCIF) launched the Pediatric Cataract Initiative (PCI) in 2010, a program aimed at improving eye care for children.

In 2012, PCI awarded a US$150,000 grant to the Siliguri Greater Lions Eye Hospital in West Bengal, India. The grant allowed the hospital to train local teachers, community health workers and primary care givers to screen and refer children with pediatric cataract and to train hospital staff and purchase equipment to improve cataract treatment and provide free care for patients such as young Pradip. “Now, Pradip is back to school and he can play, read and walk without anybody’s support. It is our wish that he is a good student and literate, successful person,” said Pradip’s mother, beaming.

Last week, LCIF partner Bausch + Lomb celebrated its Global Day of Caring by celebrating our partnership through the PCI. Please watch and share the video above about the initiative.