By Innocent Odoh Foremost humanitarian organization, The Lions Club has said work at its proposed eye hospital located in Piwoyi, a suburb of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) will commence in earnest as the Club is mobilizing resources to complete the project, which it said will benefit the poor.
Indications to this development emerged during a programme organized by Lions Region 6 and 7, Abuja to give free training to the rural dwellers of Piwoyi on how to make cake, paint and beads and to also assist them with funds to start small scale businesses.
The exercise, with the theme “Engaging the Youth” which drew large number of the rural dwellers, took place at the proposed Lions Club eye hospital, in Piwoyi, the project aimed at providing free eye medications to the community.
Pioneer District Governor, District 404(A2), Nigeria, Lami Ahmed, told our reporter in an interview that the Club is tasking itself within its meager resources to make the world a better place for the less privileged in the society in line with the philosophy of the founder of the Club, Melvin Jones.
“It will interest you to know that as leaders, we can only tow the path of our ancestors, those who have also sacrificed their time to make the world a better place for the less privileged. And so for 100 years, our founder, Melvin Jones, has been doing a lot to bring about change in various communities through the Lions Clubs spread across over 204 countries in geographical locations in the world with about 45 clubs,” she said.
She stressed that the proposed eye hospital in Piwoyi, which was a brainchild of Lions Club District 404 Nigeria, will provide free eye medications to the poor. Ahmed said “we look at it that even though we have eye hospitals in Nigeria, the prevalence of blindness is still on the rise particularly among children and the less educated. Even though we have this hospitals people who are poor have no access to them, they have to pay through their nose to get to one.
“So we look at an eye hospital where the less privileged can come in freely, get examined freely and where we can offer interventions we do it to them freely, and those who can afford it can come in and pay less for what they would have been asked to pay in private hospitals.
“This is a concept we are copying from other African countries where we have Lions activities that have become referral hospitals in the world now. So we want to copy best practices to serve the need of the communities.”
She added that adequate mechanism has been put in place to evaluate and monitor their projects in order to forestall the phenomenon of abandoned projects.
President of the Abuja Municipal Centennial Lions Club, Owulo Nnenna Lucy, told our reporter that the Club is doing this humanitarian service to the community to reduce the pangs of poverty among rural dwellers by equipping them with requisite skills and little money to start small businesses.
“These people are villagers, they need something to sustain themselves, they don’t need N1 million or even N100, 000 to start this business, because we know their level of income, that was why we started with this low level of empowerment.
“They can start cake making with N3,000, N5,000 and when they sell they make a little profit.
“The previous time we did this, after the training we mobilized them with little money like N10,000 to encourage them to start off,” she said.
One of the beneficiaries of the training, who gave her name as Rose Zachariah, said that the exercise was invaluable to the community. “I was planning to go and learn it but because the money they charged me I don’t have it, I let go. When I got the invitation to learn it freely I was very happy. So we thank Lions Club, God will empower them to do more, they should come again and again because we need such help,” she said.
Another beneficiary, Dupe Gold, who also lauded the Lions Club, said “I learnt a lot from what they taught us today, I gained valuable experience in making cakes, if I get home, I will go and practice it and do it for my children and also use it to make money.”
