At Lions Day with the United Nations on March 4, 2017, International President Chancellor Bob Corlew signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Madame Lakshmi Puri, Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations and Deputy Executive Director of UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.
The MOU establishes a partnership between Lions Clubs International and UN Women to work towards gender equality through the promotion and inaction of UN Sustainable Goal Number 5 Gender Equality: Achieve gender equality and empower women and girls.
What can Lions do to help accomplish gender equality?
Through joint programming, campaigning, advocacy, fundraising and more, UN Women and Lions worldwide can achieve our common objectives: strengthening and investing in young women’s leadership, ending all forms of violence against women and girls, and strengthening the partnership with adolescent boys and young men in gender equality.
Get started in your community!
- Encourage women and girls to join Lions and Leo clubs and to take leadership roles in their communities
- Work with a local shelter to help women in need advance in their careers (assistance with resumes, practice interviews, donating business attire, etc.)
- Host a panel discussion in your community on the topic of gender equality, women’s rights, domestic violence and other women’s issues
- Collect menstrual hygiene products and toiletry items for women in need and provide to a local women’s shelter
- Help fund a businesswoman’s microfinance venture through websites such as kiva.org.
