“Lions—you who have your sight, your hearing, you who are strong and brave and kind—will you not constitute yourselves Knights of the Blind in my crusade against darkness?” Spoken by Helen Keller during the 1925 Lions Clubs International Convention in Ohio, USA, these words motivated Lions across the globe to increase their efforts to help prevent and treat vision loss. Over the last 100 years, Lions continued to rise to that challenge, developing innovative projects, partnerships and programs, empowered by Lions Clubs International Foundation (LCIF).
We are immensely proud of the impact SightFirst Grants had in communities around the world and are excited to build on that success with this new grant opportunity.
The SightFirst program has been one of the key ways Lions and Leos have lived out this challenge in recent years. Since 1990, SightFirst funds have allowed Lions, health care providers and partner organizations around the world to fight the major causes of preventable and reversible blindness, impacting more than 544 million people. In just over three decades, LCIF approved more than US$389 million in SightFirst Grant funding for over 1,400 projects in 118 countries, thanks to the incredible generosity of donors. These funds enabled 9.8 million cataract surgeries and trained 2.66 million health care professionals.
They also secured hundreds of millions of doses of medications to control trachoma and river blindness, helping eliminate river blindness in Columbia, Ecuador, Guatemala and Mexico, as well as helping eliminate trachoma in Malawi. These humanitarian service efforts have changed lives and improved communities. However, according to the World Health Organization, more than 2.2 billion people worldwide have a vision impairment, and still need help.
To build on the legacy of SightFirst, LCIF launched a new Vision Grant opportunity that supports Lion-led service activities fighting blindness and preventable vision loss and assists people in underserved communities who are blind and visually impaired. The Vision Grant aims to support infrastructure development, equipment acquisition, human resource building and limited consumables, which are all core principles of the SightFirst program. “We are immensely proud of the impact SightFirst Grants had in communities around the world and are excited to build on that success with this new grant opportunity,” LCIF Chairperson Dr. Patti Hill said.
“Ever since Helen Keller inspired Lions to champion the vision cause, we’ve served and advocated for the blind and visually impaired of all ages, in every corner of the world. LCIF enhances that service and expands our reach,” Dr. Hill said. “We are extremely proud of our history and look forward to the continued impact we will make restoring and preserving vision in the decades to come.”
Learn more about how LCIF empowers Lions’ and Leos’ service in vision.
Shelby Washington is the content specialist at Lions Clubs International Foundation.
