This past spring and summer, my very good friend, Lion Bjørn Skovly, traveled by bicycle from Veitostrond, Norway to Uganda, Africa to raise money for his project, a new vocational school. He also wanted to raise awareness for the children’s needs. But he has done far more than that.
If we have the health to do so, there is no reason why age should stop us from realizing our dreams.
I have been in Africa for Lions’ projects more than 30 times during the past 20 years as the leader of Lions Aid Norway. And I have visited Lion Bjørn’s projects in the slum and have seen firsthand the impact he has made.
His project, as a member of Lions Club Luster, started in 2015 with distributing mosquito nets to save children’s lives in Uganda but it has become something much more. Ever since Lion Bjørn first visited Uganda in 2010, he lost his heart for this country. As chairman of the Lions Council of Governors of Norway, he got to experience the country and all of its needs a little later on.
The project he started was to help the daughters of HIV-infected single mothers from the slums of Kampala. It now provides 1,000 children with education, food and health services as an alternative to a life without any future. In addition, the mothers receive medication so they are able to live more safely.
However, it didn’t stop there. Higher education is expensive in Uganda, and those who can afford it are happy to send their children to universities. Unfortunately, too many end up unemployed afterwards. In contrast, there is a major shortage of skilled workers in the country. This is why the project that Lion Bjørn leads is now building a vocational school so they can give young people from the slums and poor areas a sustainable education that will help them and their families. To carry out the project, they needed to raise 2.5 million Norwegian kroner (NOKS).
Lion Bjørn’s answer to drawing attention to Lions and the project in Uganda was to cycle. Not just any small trip but beginning in Førde in western Norway and on to Kampala. The trip went through Europe to the southern tip of Italy, about 4,000 kilometers, before the final 1,600 kilometers in East Africa. He raised 1.5 million NOKS, with much of that contribution coming from Lions clubs in Norway.
Now Lion Bjørn and two friends are cycling their way back home. After a trip through Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, the journey continues from Morocco through Europe, and back to Veitastrond in Luster in Sogn, where he lives. With the lecture tour he is planning for Lions clubs in Norway, he will arrive home on October 1. He must secure the last million kroner in support, but is so sure that he can do it that the work to build the school has already started.
Lion Bjørn turned 74 the day after he completed his cycling trip in front of Parliament in Kampala. He is still clear in his message: if we have the health to do so, there is no reason why age should stop us from realizing our dreams. His dream is that each year, 200 students will be trained in Uganda because the country needs this knowledge. Now he sees his dream about to be realized.
We, as Lions, must stay active in service, and give of our time, our labor and our means to create a better world. In Lion’s ethical norm, we say that we must make an active effort to improve conditions in society and help those in need. “For me,” says Lion Bjørn Skovly, “it has become the most important thing in my life.”
Past International Director Lion Svein Berntsen is a member of the Lions Club Askøy in Norway.
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