The Africa Chapter of the Lions Club International (LCI) has held its fourth African meeting in Accra to strategise on how to grow the association on the continent.
The meeting brought together leadership of the club and members from across the continent, Lebanon, India and the United States of America (USA).
The LCI is an international non-political, non-governmental, non-religious and not for profit service organisation headquartered in Oak Brook, Illinois in Chicago, USA, with over 46,000 local clubs and more than 1.4 million members in over 200 countries around the world.
The immediate past Lions Club International (LCI) President, Lion Brian E. Shehan, commended members of the Ghana club for contributing more than US$19,000 dollars to support activities of the club.
According to him, since its foundation in Africa, over 221 million dollars had been invested and nearly a quarter of a billion dollars had gone into projects in Africa.
“We have a great partnerships here in Africa with Johnson and Johnson, the Labour Day Saints Carter centre, and we have been able to do a number of projects, eradicating blindness, river blindness, being able to build hospitals and other important projects,” he said.
Lion Shehan said members around the world were rallying around the five global causes of vision, hunger, the environment, childhood cancer and diabetes, adding that a goal had been set to serve 200 million people a year through the causes and other humanitarian initiatives.
“Every day, every way, Lions are investing their time, talents and resources in the communities where they live, work and serve. We believe there is no challenge that can’t be overcome when we unite for good. We are caring men and women who come together to be the difference in our communities. We believe we can do so much more together than we can alone,” he said.
LCI President, Lion Dr Patti Hill, said the club believed that young people were future leaders adding that it provides young people opportunities to become volunteers and service leaders, developing new skills and a lifelong passion for service.
“We also provide valuable local services to youth such as mentoring, health programmes and scholarships. Internationally, we empower youth through our Peace Poster Contest, youth camps and exchanges, and the Lions Quest programme that has helped provide positive life skills to over 20 million students,” she said.
She said there was the opportunity for them to grow as civic leaders to hold their skills as a club president, someone who understands constitutions, by-laws, parliamentary procedure, to help shape their lives to build the world at large.
The District Governor, District 418-Ghana, Ms Kate Baaba Hudson, said the event would help promote the principles and objectives of the International Association of the Lions Clubs, training, educating, and motivating district and club officers.
According to her, the event would also provide for the exchange of information and discussions of service activities, including opportunities for cooperative service projects and advancing the interests of the Lions Clubs International on the African continent.
BY AGNES OPOKU SARPONG
