In the days of so many scam and crooked emails, imagine someone you have not met in person or known before emails you and promises that they will give you USD 10,000 if you get back to them. Most of us including myself will disregard such an email or send it to trash and I almost did that a year ago; thank god I did not delete the email and this is why as I am blogging now USD 10,000 has been transferred to the Lions Club of Limbe in Malawi to help the blind and visually impaired children.
You see Lion Marco Terzetti of Perugia Lions club in Italy had by chance came across my blog site in December 2008 ; and was fascinated with articles on VISION2020 -the global initiative to fight blindness and what was being done in Malawi especially in regard to blind and visually impaired children .At that time I was blogging frequently about the project I was launching in Southern Malawi to help blind children ; and the challenges we were facing in Malawi .Honestly speaking I wasn’t blogging to ask for money from anyone .So when he emailed back with a few words saying “email me back to collect a cheque for your project in Malawi” I said to myself here we go with another of those Nigerian emails that claim that thousands of dollars have been left in bank in Abuja and that I should help the widow and get a 50% share ( and I do get a lot of these emails lately).
Putting my trust in God, I replied to Marco asking how this was going to be possible; after all what was his interest as he didn’t know me.
The rest is history (email me to get what followed after that); but I am proud to announce that through my blog site , the Lions Club of Limbe Malawi have benefited from Lions of Perugia ,Italy with a grant of USD10,000 to support a project in Phalombe dealing with blind and visually impaired children.
I came up with the idea that the project should take place in Phalombe. Lions Clubs Lions clubs have been a very strong supporting partner for VISION2020 ; and the first phase of their projects concentrated on infrastructure development –which for Malawi resulted in Lions club building 4 Lions eye hospitals and donating them to Government .I work at the biggest Lions Sight first eye hospital in Malawi , which is located at Queen Elizabeth in Blantyre .The second phase of Lions Project concentrated on supporting surgeries to reverse blindness from Trachoma ; and countries like Ethiopia have massively benefited from the Lions Fund.
Ironically the VISION2020 head offices are in London at the International Centre for Eye Health where I am based when I am in London. This should not come as a surprise that I am a strong advocate of VISION2020.
I am happy for now that through this VISION2020 initiative and the partnership with Lions club, the poor blind and severely visually impaired children from Phalombe, Malawi will be helped. Meanwhile I continue exploring other avenues of how to promote VISION2020 in Malawi. Sorry i forgot , I am a Lion member myself even though I am not in the picture with Lions of Limbe members.But you can see me among the children in my red polo t-shirt.Project is for 2010-2011; but you can come in after!!
Want to help ?
Any ideas ?
What do you say?
Email me!
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