Exemplifying "We Serve"- Lions World Sight Day 2007
Each year hundreds of Lions clubs around the world hold vision screenings, community education programs, eyeglass collections and other special projects to mark Lions World Sight Day on October 11 in 2007. 

The 2007 international event was held in Colombo, the capital city of Sri Lanka. International President Amarasuriya presided over the events that will include cataract surgeries at the Lions Gift of Sight Hospital and the Sight First Hospital Hendala outside Colombo. A seminar on childhood blindness, a public meeting on the importance of preserving and restoring sight, a parade and other events marked the occasion, which coincided with the 50th anniversary of Lions clubs in Sri Lanka.

Lions World Sight Day was created in 1998 to spotlight the importance of eradicating preventable blindness and improving sight. An increasing number of Lions clubs are using this occasion to collect eyeglasses, conduct vision and diabetes screenings and plan educational programs to inform their communities about the importance of sight and diseases such as diabetes that can impact sight. 

Now is the time to plan your club's activities for Lions World Sight Day 2008. Lions are encouraged to plan events on Lions World Sight Day or sometime during the month of October to coincide with the event.

There are a number of resources that will help. For suggestions about what your club can do to mark Lions World Sight Day, download The Lions World Sight Day Activity Guide. To order new Lions Eye Health Program material, click here. For information about recycling eyeglasses, click here.

Get Involved
Is your club planning an activity? Activities that local clubs can do include:

• Partnering with local eye care professionals or organizations to conduct vision, glaucoma and cataract screenings
• Offering to work with local schools or preschools on vision screenings or providing information about eye health to students 
• Conducting a diabetes screening and awareness program in conjunction with a local
• Distributing Lions Eye Health Program material at a health fair, library or community center
• Launching or expanding a community-wide eyeglass recycling program

Lions World Sight Day 2006 Events Held in Mali
Lions Clubs International and Lions in Mali marked Lions World Sight Day (LWSD) in Bamako, Mali, on Oct. 12-13. Lions leaders met with government officials to discuss the importance of eradicating preventable blindness, organized a major vision screening and toured the African Institute for Tropical Ophthalmology (IOTA)--the premier eye hospital and training institute in West Africa. The Lions Clubs International Foundation (LCIF) and the Lions of Mali fund IOTA, which trains ophthalmologists and ophthalmic nurses from Mali and other countries in West Africa.

Lions in Mali, working in cooperation with the Give the Gift of Sight Foundation, a Luxottica Group Foundation, organized a vision screening that reached 29,000 children and adults between Oct. 11-20.  Residents of Bamako and the surrounding area were given free eye exams and those who needed eyeglasses were fitted with recycled eyeglasses.

Lions Clubs International President Jimmy Ross shows a girl how she looks with new glasses.

More than 1,000 adults and children were referred for follow-up care at IOTA.  “We found a three-year-old child who could not see because of cataracts,” said Lion Mama Tapo, who, along with a committee of Lions, organized the LWSD events and coordinated the vision screening with the Give the Gift of Sight Foundation. “With treatment at IOTA, this child will see again.   We found an 18-year-old who had lost most of his sight because of glaucoma. The experts at IOTA will help him maximize the low vision that he still has.  And we provided eyeglasses to a schoolteacher who had never had her vision tested. She was very excited because now she could see her students and grade her papers much better.”

Clubs Mark LWSD 2006
Each year Lions clubs worldwide hold local activities in October to educate their communities about the need to conquer blindness and preserve sight. Activities include vision and diabetes screenings, community education programs and eyeglass collections.

This year the Fairhope Lions Club in Alabama asked local mayors to issue proclamations recognizing LWSD. The Alabama Lions Sight Mobile Screening Unit conducted screenings for glaucoma, vision, hearing and high blood pressure and Lions collected used eyeglasses for recycling. The Canyon Lions Club in Texas collected 1,065 pairs of eyeglasses.  The Lions Club of Grand Cayman, the Hornsby Inc. NWS Lions Club in Australia and many other clubs around the world also collected eyeglasses for recycling.

The Bozeman, Montana, Lions Club held a fund-raising event for Campaign SightFirst II and more than 400 Lions gathered in Village-Neuf, France, to raise funds for the campaign.

The Lions Club of Bangalore North in India also arranged for the post office to issue a special World Sight Day postal cancellation for all mail sent from the general post office in Bangalore on Oct. 12.

Johnsonville, New Zealand, Lions Club members sponsored a car trial for the blind in which blind and visually impaired participants served as navigators with Braille maps for sighted drivers. Paired navigators and drivers who lost the least points by being closest in time and distance to the planned route won a prize.

The Lions Club of St. Pantelejmon in Macedonia promoted awareness for efforts on behalf of the blind and visually impaired through a series of public discussions aired locally and nationally on radio and television.