Lions Clubs In Africa Get P300m Shot In Arm

By Thato Chwaane
Staff Writer | Monday February 12, 2007 00:00

Lions Clubs in Africa celebrate their 50th anniversary next year. The first Lions club in Botswana was launched at Lobatse in 1968.

Mehta, who was in Gaborone before leaving for Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, for the Africa Lions Clubs conference, said Lions clubs in Botswana have been granted US $10 000 for emergency grants for incidences of natural disasters. He said he was happy to note that Lions Clubs in Botswana were actively involved in various projects.

In an interview with Monitor last week, Mehta said that they were also looking at investing US $1 million in an eye hospital in Francistown.

He said they would however need support because the facility would be providing services free of charge. He said a new spacious eye clinic and optical workshop was built in Mochudi in 1994 and equipped it with the combined effort of four Lions clubs in Botswana and financial grant of US$102 000 from LCIF's Sight First Project.

Mehta noted that Lions International is eager to help fight blindness across Africa, saying: 'No one should suffer from preventable blindness'.

Meanwhile, Lions Clubs will start a pilot project for teenagers in Botswana so that they could be taught 'the art of saying no' to bad things in life.