Restoring Sight, Keeping the Lions Legacy

In a bid to keep with Lions Club International’s legacy of fighting blindness and vision loss as well as assisting those who are blind or visually impaired get back their sight, the International Association of Lions Club, Lagos Mainland Legacy Lions Club, District 404B2, Nigeria, recently held one of her legacy projects, which basically dwelled on restoring sights to those with eye impediment. Writes MARY NNAH

Born in Tuscumbia, Alabama, USA, in 1880, Helen Keller developed a fever at 18 months of age that left her blind and deaf. With the help of an exceptional teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan of the Perkins School for the Blind, Helen Keller learned sign language and braille. A few years later, she learned to speak. As an adult, she became a tireless advocate for people with disabilities.

And in 1925, she attended the Lions Clubs International Convention where she challenged Lions to become “Knights of the Blind” in the crusade against blindness. The Lions accepted her challenge and the club’s work ever since has included sight programmes aimed at preventable blindness.

Although founded in 1917, ever since Helen Keller’s challenge in 1925, the Lions Club International became known for fighting blindness, while it also volunteers for many other kinds of community projects – including caring for the environment, feeding the hungry, and aiding the elderly and the disabled.

Most importantly, Lions give sight by conducting vision screenings, equipping hospitals and clinics, distributing medicine, and raising awareness of eye disease with a mission of providing vision for all.

Ever since, Lions Club International has played a major role in helping restore, improve and preserve the vision of millions around the world. 

To keep this legacy going of fighting blindness and vision loss as well as assist those who are blind or visually impaired get back their sight back, the Lagos Mainland Legacy Lions Club, District 404B2 recently presented one of her legacy projects, which was basically restoring sights to those with eye impediment. free eyes screening, Cataract, and Glaucoma surgeries for 10 persons in Lagos.

The exercise took place at the Eye Foundation, GRA Ikeja, Lagos, on March 9 and was extended till March 10.

The President, Lagos Mainland Legacy Lions Club, Mrs. Rukevwe Origho–Nwoye, explained that for a long time now, the District, in general, has been partnering with the Eye Foundation, Ikeja which was why her own club also decided to partner  the Eye Foundation on this particular legacy project. 

Besides that, Rukevwe Origho–Nwoye said the Eye Foundation has always given the Club discounts, which makes it easier for them to touch more lives.

Over 20 people benefited from the exercise, excluding people who got free eyes screening which was over a hundred people.

The club president who said the exercise didn’t just stop at screening, giving out glasses, and carrying our surgeries, noted, “We always do follow up on our benefactors. After we have paid for the screening and surgery, they are given treatments and later they come back months later to look at their eyes if they are good or not.”

She stressed further that it was always safe to do a regular check on the eyes to detect any sight problem on time and find a solution to it before it deteriorate. 

“Early detection is very important so that you don’t go blind. Sight is everything. Without sight, you are in darkness, so I am challenging Nigerians to always go for eye checkups.

” Everybody is supposed to check on their eyesight every year whether you are wearing glasses or not. There are a lot of people who have stayed for years and did not know they had a particular eye issue until now that they came for screening.

” So it is always good to make your eyesight checkups as regular as you do checkups on your body”, Origho–Nwoye noted.

One of the Directors at Lagos Mainland Legacy Lions Club, Lion Phina Origho, explained that the beneficiaries of the eye screening and surgeries were members of the public; most especially the less privileged that cannot afford to pay for the treatments.

“We usually publicise our events, we place banners at strategic places, and we send those banners to churches to announce the free eye test.

” The eye screening is for everybody who comes but for those who need surgery we make a selection of those who obviously can’t pay for the surgery, and we then pay for them at a subsidised rate.”

The District Governor (DG), Lion Kayode Oshinuga reiterated that Lions Club International was originally primed as the greatest eye care charity service organisation in the world.

He explained that even though the club has added other areas to its endeavours now, its basic starting point was eye care.

“We are naturally known as the “Knights of the blind”, our position is to help people prevent blindness and to also help those who are blind or partially blind live normal life”, the DG said.

He said therefore that the Lagos Mainland Legacy Lions Club through its recent legacy project has reaffirmed the originality of the Lion Club core service, adding, “two years ago this particular club was here, last year another Lions club was here. Even last October, we were at Lions Eye Centre, Ota, Ogun State where about 500 people underwent surgery”.

From the initial general screening of the eyes done for every individual that turned up for the exercise, the hospital then determined what each of the patients’ needed further and then give them the appropriate treatments. Those who needed cataracts were scheduled for operation.

First Vice District Governor, District 404B2, Nigeria, Lion Aare Lekan Owolabi described the project as a laudable one, adding, “In Lions Club International, we place premium in assisting the underprivileged and we try to reach out and touch lives and restoration of vision is one of our core service areas.”

“As far back as 1925, Lions Club International was adjudged and proclaimed the Knight of the Blind and the testimony is that we have always been there at least to help those who could not see or have a visual impairment.

” So, Lagos Mainland Legacy Lions Club is just trying to uphold the ideal of lionism by gathering people whose eyesight need to be restored”, he said.

He advised Nigerians with visual impediments to taking advantage of the opportunity offered by the Lions Club, adding, “one of the things we have been doing as members of Lions International is not only to intervene in the area of eye screening, treatment and carrying out an operation for those who need it but we also do sensitisation programmes because when the citizens are well informed about the danger in not taking care of their health or not being sensitive to the happenings within their bodies when it becomes endemic, it is always very difficult to tackle.”

“So, what we can do is to step up the awareness to ensure that members of the public are aware and to also give them elementary medical tips that they can fall back on whenever they notice any sign of ailment within their body systems”, Owolabi noted.

Zone 3C Chairperson of District 404B2, Lion Lillian Harry Ukah said the exercise is one of the core values of the Lions Club, adding, “we take care of the less privileged, we take care of those who have vision impediment and also we take care of cancer patients. 

“So basically, it is a thing of joy to witness that members of the Lagos Mainland Legacy Lions Club have taken out their time and resources to touch people who have vision issues. I must commend them. It is a great achievement.”

She advised that people should not neglect the eye, which is one of the important organs in the human body, adding, “Most of the time, we neglect the eyes, we can go to the hospital for headache and stomach but we neglect the eyes.”

She, therefore, advised that from time to time people should take out time to check their eyes to prevent blindness, which will incapacitate them for life.

She also appealed to the public to pray for the Lions Club to have more people who key into the vision of helping other people, adding, “We are just passing on what we have received from others before us and we pray that the legacy continues and that the Lions Club continues to grow in strength and numbers and that God will bless the beneficiaries because if they did not come we would not have anybody to service, so the beneficiaries are an integral part of the services we render.”