Tan Huat, a 52-year-old onetime planter, has been undergoing kidney dialysis since 1996 at the Muar Lions Renal Dialysis Center. Huat's treatments cost less than half of what private clinics in Malaysia charge.

Huat is grateful to the local Lions for extending his life. And the Lions in Maur are grateful to LCIF for a US$75,000 grant supporting the center.

In 2001, LCIF provided funds to allow the Lions in Maur to expand the dialysis center and purchase additional equipment including eight dialysis machines. The support was desperately needed. The most recent government statistics show that nearly 2,000 Malaysians annually are diagnosed with end-stage kidney failure. Many of them die before receiving treatment because of the lack of public hospitals and the high cost of private facilities.

The funds from LCIF have enabled the dialysis center to treat 91 patients a year instead of 80. Eventually, the patient load is expected to reach 120.

Lions in Maur raised the funds to open their dialysis center in 1994 and have been operating the center along with four other Lions clubs. Before the LCIF funding, the center made do with 24 dialysis machines and faced a waiting list of 25.

The dialysis center treats many people who otherwise would have declined physically and died. Among the current patients is Fong Chiew Weng, a 61-year-old retired bus driver. Lions have been particularly generous toward Weng. Suffering from diabetes, Weng had his left leg amputated below the knee 18 months ago. He has no family and lives in a nursing home. The dialysis center began giving him free dialysis treatments last December.

 "I was truly impressed by the quality of the center and its significance in helping people," said LCIF Chairman Dr. Jean Behar, who visited the dialysis center last December. "To see how Lions provide for people and how LCIF funding makes a difference in people's lives is inspiring."