Lions Club: A century of focused contributions

When the idea of establishing the Lions Club was mooted by Melvin Jones in far away Chicago, United States of America, in 1917, little did the 38-year-old business leader envisage the ripple effects such initiative would have on  communities such as Nigeria and others that are many miles away from Chicago, where the organisation was founded.

For instance, in the past few decades, one of the ways the organisation has made its impact felt, in Nigeria, through its local branches, has been its strong community service activities, which have ensured the improvement of lives in different parts of the country.

Flagging off the Lions Service year beginning from July 1, 2017 to June 30, 2018, century district governor, Lions Club International, District 404B2, Lion Ayobola Samuel, stated that the organisation was fully focused on centennial service challenge, through its unshaken commitment to impacting 200 million lives around the world in the area of engaging youths, sharing the vision, alleviating poverty and protecting the environment.

Samuel, who is also Permanent Secretary, Kwara State Ministry of Sports and Youth Development, identified high level of accountability, policy consistency and planned leadership succession as some of the key reasons community welfare projects initiated by the club would never be abandoned.

According to him, aside proper background checks on incoming members, which ensure that only credible individuals are admitted, the services of credible external auditors usually engaged by the club promote transparency while existing mode of transfer of leadership helps the leadership to continue with good policies and projects of past administrations.

He also disclosed the organisation’s plans to triple its impacts on Nigeria and other parts of the world by improving the lives of at least 200 million people per year between 2020 and 2021, through its expanded humanitarian services.

Samuel further unfolded the club’s plans to improve the health of over 3,000 people across Nigeria. To this effect, he added that the club had opened discussion with the Mercy Medical Mission, Maryland, USA, to have a thorough screening and treatment for visual impairment, provision of medications, eyeglasses, cataract surgery and dentistry.

“We celebrate our 100th anniversary in 2017; it is a moment to look back at our long and proud tradition of service and the numerous achievements of our association and Lions around the world,” he said. He added that Lions Club would sustain its five point-agenda that has direct bearing on the people which includes engaging youths, diverting their attention from cultism, corruption, empowering and engaging them gainfully.

Others include working with various governments in Nigeria to alleviate hunger, protect the environment, sight preservation, diabetes screening and awareness campaigns.

He assured that the organisation would give special attention to education and enlightenment on sickle cell disorder and work with relevant non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and groups for support and treatment of victims.

Speaking further, he opined that the club would explore the possibility of forging partnerships with some state governments to carry out renovation and supply of equipment to selected public schools. He noted that as part of its service to humanity, the club has been supportive to camps of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), motherless babies’ homes and orphanages and feeding of primary school pupils.

He highlighted some key achievements of the club to include construction of accident clinics along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway immediately after Shagamu and along Kaduna-Zaria Expressway. Others are construction of a dialysis center at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), construction of diabetes diagnosis and treatment center in Osun State, construction of hostels for students in School for the Handicap in Ilorin, among numerous others.

Besides screening and sponsoring cataract surgeries for many Nigerians last year, the District also observed the World Week of Service for Youths. This involved lectures/seminars on entrepreneurship for young graduates and training on bead-making, cake-baking, decoration, tailoring and barbing for unemployed youths, as well as visits and donation of textbooks/notebooks to some selected schools within its area.