GALLERY: Who are the Lions and what do they do?

Lions Club International was established in America in 1917 by Melvin Jones, a local business man who saw the need to assist those less fortunate than himself.

Since then the organisation has grown enormously and today it is the world’s largest service club organisation with over 1.4 million members in 46 000 clubs located in 210 countries across the globe.

It is a non-political, non-racial and non-religious organisation with membership made up of men and women from all walks of life. Their motto is simply “We Serve”.

Lions Clubs throughout the world are divided up into Multiple Districts and South Africa, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland constitutes Multiple District 410. The Multiple District is sub divided into four Districts: 410A comprising of the Western Cape and Namibia, 410B Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, North West and Swaziland, 410C Natal and the Free State and 410D the Eastern Cape. There are 165 clubs in Southern Africa with a membership of over 2 500.

Lions throughout the world perform hundreds of service projects annually ranging from providing food parcels to destitute families, wheelchairs for the disabled, spectacles to those in need, guide dogs for the blind, to much bigger projects such as building of homes through Habitat for Humanity, the provision of childcare facilities and the like. The money required to perform these projects is obtained through the various fundraisers the individual clubs undertake and no money raised from the public is used for the running of the club and must go directly back into the community.

The Lions Club International Foundation (LCIF) also supports countries that have been hit by disasters providing much needed humanitarian services and has contributed huge sums of money to Southern Africa towards drought relief and floods.

Multiple District 410 will be holding it’s annual national convention from 30 April to 3 May at the Randburg Towers Hotel where feedback will be provided to the 300 delegates attending on the status of the organisation in terms of membership, finances and national projects as well as the election of the new office bearers for the fiscal year 2015/2016.

Should you be interested in joining our organisation please log onto www.directory.lionsclubs.org for the club closest to you.

Details: Sandy van Heerden sandyvheerden@gmail.com