The Lions Blog

As March is Lions Eye Donor Awareness Month, Lions are encouraged to recognize the importance of eye donations. Here, we’ll go over some Frequently Asked Questions about eye donations and corneal transplants to help you better understand how eye donations work.

Why should eyes be donated?

Corneal transplants depend on eye donations, as there is no substitute for real human tissue. Eye donations are also crucial to research and education.

Who can be an eye donor?

Anyone can be an eye donor, aside from people suffering from highly communicable diseases such as HIV or hepatitis, or suffering from infections. Age, eye color or eyesight do not matter.

What is a corneal transplant?

The cornea is the eye’s outermost layer that covers the front of the eye, and a corneal transplant involves replacing a scarred or diseased cornea with a new one. Only the cornea is transplanted.

How do eye donations help research and education?

Eye donations can help advance research on glaucoma, retinal disease, eye complications of diabetes and more. This research is critical to finding new treatments and cures.

What is an eye bank?

An eye bank is a nonprofit organization that recovers, evaluates, stores and distributes human eye tissue.

How can my Lions club become involved?

Lions Eye Banks are sponsored by a Lions club, district or multiple district, and have an established working relationship with a medical facility.

• Learn more about establishing a new Lions Eye Bank in your community.
• Invite a speaker from the eye bank to a club event to raise awareness.
• Organize a donor awareness event.
• Organize a fundraiser for your local eye bank.

 Does your community have a local eye bank?

Comedian and TV personality Rick Mercer recently featured the Lions Foundation of Canada Dog Guides on his show “Rick Mercer Report.” Mercer learned more about how Lions train dogs to change the lives of people with medical or physical disabilities – from guiding them around town to alerting them when someone is at the door.

Watch the video above to see the segment on “Rick Mercer Report.”

How does your Lions club help people with disabilities?

It took minutes for the tsunami and earthquake on March 11, 2011, to devastate Japan. Two years later, communities remain in tatters. Three Lions clubs were particularly devastated. This is the story of the Iidate Lions Club, where all 30 members of the club remain in evacuation facilities.

Thirty-five years ago, Sakae Akaishizawa opened a noodle shop in Iidate. The restaurant he built became an immensely popular community fixture. Then the tsunami rubbed out the restaurant in a flash. Akaishizawa was heartbroken. Making things worse were the required evacuations.

Iidate is a small farming village where life had always been calm and peaceful. Lions in Iidate considered themselves fortunate.

After the earthquake, Iidate accepted approximately 4,000 evacuees from the coastal area. But, heavy contamination with radiation from the nearby Fukushima nuclear plant forced everyone to leave.

Lions relocated far and wide. Three club officers kept in touch with the widely scattered members. Lions in Japan donated funds to the club, and Lions Clubs International waived dues. Somehow the club continued on.

According to the government, decontamination will be completed by March 2014. Akaishizawa wonders if his village will ever recover. Will only the elderly come back? Even if people return, the days of quiet farming in the village may never come again.

Yet there are spots of light in the darkness. Akaishizawa has reopened his noodle shop in a temporary building. Longtime customers travel great distances just for his signature “Kohaku” ramen, the rich noodle soup filled with crispy pork and piles of vegetables. When he sees his customers eating and chatting with one another, Akaishizawa can half-believe the days to come may equal the days that went before.

As time moves forward, so does recovery efforts in Japan and Lions’ efforts to aid their communities. Read the full story of all three Lions clubs online and in the upcoming May LION magazine.

Editor’s Note

Adapted from a story from the Japanese LION.

Lions Clubs International Foundation mobilized more than US$21 million for Japan relief efforts thanks to LCIF grants and donations from Lions worldwide. Among other projects, LCIF helped Lions provide equipment and supplies to support victims who were relocated to transitional housing; provide major medical equipment for hospitals, including a full-body radiation detection unit, ophthalmology equipment and an x-ray machine; and assistance for an economic revival project.

It took minutes for the tsunami and earthquake on March 11, 2011, to devastate Japan. Two years later, communities remain in tatters. Three Lions clubs were particularly devastated. This is the story of the Minami Sanriku Shizugawa Lions Club. Almost all 36 members of the club lost both their homes and workplaces.

The torrent of water washed away precious recipes for his cakes, breads and pastries. Working strictly from memory, Lion Yuichi Abe reopened his cake shop in a temporary strip mall a year ago. As club president, he spends many hours networking with Lions from other towns who offer aid. He says he struggles between feeling grateful for the support and the stress of meeting his responsibilities as a shop keeper and a Lions leader.

After a nine-month delay, the Minami Sanriku Shizugawa Lions Club held its 50^th charter celebration last April. The club invited Lions from clubs throughout Japan that had traveled to their town to help. Nearly 300 Lions attended. The tsunami was sadly ironic for the club, which was initially organized to provide assistance to Chili after a terrible earthquake and tsunami there.

In the year after the disaster, residents were determined to show a strong resolve. As time passed by, harsh reality sunk in. The town’s population was 18,000 before the disaster and perhaps less than 12,000 now with many moving away to find better employment and housing opportunities.

As time moves forward, so does recovery efforts in Japan and Lions’ efforts to aid their communities. Read the full story of all three Lions clubs online and in the upcoming May LION Magazine.

Editor’s Note

Adapted from a story from the Japanese LION.

Lions Clubs International Foundation mobilized more than US$21 million for Japan relief efforts thanks to LCIF grants and donations from Lions worldwide. Among other projects, LCIF helped Lions provide equipment and supplies to support victims who were relocated to transitional housing; provide major medical equipment for hospitals, including a full-body radiation detection unit, ophthalmology equipment and an x-ray machine; and assistance for an economic revival project.

It took minutes for the tsunami and earthquake on March 11, 2011, to devastate Japan. Two years later, communities remain in tatters. Three Lions clubs were particularly devastated. This is the story of the Rikuzentakata Lions Club in Iwate, which lost 11 of its 70 members to the tsunami.

On the 11^th of every month, Lion Seiichiro Kanno and his wife bring a can of Coke and flowers to what remains of the Rikuzentakata Post Office, where their only son, Hiroyuki, worked. To his father’s delight, Hiroyuki took after him in many ways. For Kanno, all of that seems more than a lifetime ago.

The city finally is tearing down the post office, which only had its exterior walls left. Seeing the building come down makes Kanno reflect on his son’s final moments. For Kanno, remembering his lost son is the one thing he can do for him.

As the city moves forward, all public buildings are slated for teardown soon. The construction company owned by Lion Shu Kinno, which resumed its operation sooner than any other company after the disaster, is heavily involved in debris removal. “We need to hurry. We have to clear up the land soon and move on.  Otherwise, recovery will be forever out of our reach,” says Kinno, club president.

Initially, members of other Lions clubs visited Rikuzentakata to help. After about a year, Rikuzentakata Lions realized that it was impossible to continue hosting Lions eager to help. They needed to focus on reviving their businesses and politely told other Lions financial help was most appreciated.

Lion Satoru Sugawara opened a makeshift gas station just a month after the tsunami. He called it “Ganbaro,” which means “Let’s Hang Tough.” Last November he began construction on a permanent building. Sugawara is anxious to move ahead so his employees can return to work.

As time moves forward, so does recovery efforts in Japan and Lions’ efforts to aid their communities. Read the full story of all three Lions clubs online and in the upcoming May LION Magazine.

Editor’s Note

Adapted from a story from the Japanese LION.

Lions Clubs International Foundation mobilized more than US$21 million for Japan relief efforts thanks to LCIF grants and donations from Lions worldwide. Among other projects, LCIF helped Lions provide equipment and supplies to support victims who were relocated to transitional housing; provide major medical equipment for hospitals, including a full-body radiation detection unit, ophthalmology equipment and an x-ray machine; and assistance for an economic revival project.