Key Projects 2022/23

Paint Their World

“Paint their World” is a service project conducted in the true meaning of painting the world of cancer patients in Karapitiya Hospital, Galle. Loosing health is a tragedy in life and everyone will agree that cancer patients are the ones who are suffering most physically, mentally fighting for their life between life and death. Paint their world is a project focused to paint beds and lockers of Cancer Ward of Karapitiya General Hospital. Accordingly all the beds and lockers of Ladies cancer ward No 29 were painted on 31st Dec 2022 with the collective efforts of Lions club of Dehiwala North and Leo Club of University of Moratuwa. The hospital emphasized on the good deed and mentioned, “They may spend the last days of their life on the bed you painted, they may keep their last belonging in the locker you painted, Hence thank you for your consideration.” The service project was conducted to make the patients feel a little more happy, little more cozy and little more confident to fight for their life.

29th Annual All Island Essay Contest

29th Annual All Island Essay Competition for school children on “Prevention of Drug Abuse and HIV AIDS” is a signature project of Lions Club of Dehiwala North, held continuously for the 29th year in 2022. Prevention of Drug Abuse and HIVAIDS is a topic discussed for centuries. At a pathetic situation where drugs are being circulated among school children, this topic has never become more important than before.

The Essay Competition was held in all three languages (Sinhala, English and Tamil) for school students. The entries for the easaay competition were called in September 2022 published in Newspapers in 3 languages. The deadline for essay submission was 31st Oct 2022 and more than 500 essays were received from the participants all over the country from North to South. The essays were classified according to the languages and were directed to the well experienced judges for selection and grading. Accordingly 5 winners were selected from each language.

All the 15 winners and their parents were invited for the Award Ceremony on 18th Dec 2022 at Lions Activity Centre at Colombo 7. The occasion was graced by the presence of District Governor Lion Thushara Peiris MJF, Distinguished judge panel, and doctors and experts on the domain of HIV/Drug Abuse awareness.

The essay competition was not just a competition but was an alarming awareness session for school children on how to protect themselves, their families and friends from drugs and HIV.

The experts of the domain delivered speeches on important topics like Role of teachers and parents in preventing children from drug use, Role of youth in drug prevention, Effects of drugs on health, Demand Reduction and social protection activities etc.

After that all the Winners were recognized and awarded with certificates, medals and cash prizes. District Governor Lion Thushara Peiris MJF elaborated the value of conducting this project for the 29th time and appreciated the efforts of project chairperson Lion Ramachandrana and the members of Lions Club of Dehiwala North and especially Rotary Club of Hills Kellyville, New South Wales, Australia for their continuous sponsorship.

Blood Donation & Eye camp

We serve to take care of health, since it is similar to their wealth…

Lions Club of Dehiwala North conducted another project to serve the global course of Vision on 12th Nov 2022 at Sri Wimalakeerthiyaramaya, Waduwegama, Biyagama together with Red Cross society - Gampaha Division.

There were 253 people participated in eye camp and 200 glasses were distributed to the ones who were identified with vision defects. The funds for the glasses were donated by Rotary Club of Hills Kellyville, New South Wales, Australia. The beneficiaries highly appreciated the service, assisting the public during the toughest times in the country. The beneficiaries further emphasized the fact that unless the glasses were received to them as a charity gifts, they are not in a position at all to buy the glasses themselves.

Along with the Eye Camp a Blood donation assisted by National Blood Bank was also conducted on that day. Around 100 people contributed in the blood donation. Blood donation was a very important segment of the project. “We don’t know who will be benefited by these drops of blood, but it is a huge pleasure to assist saving someone’s life” a participant shared his thoughts after donating blood.

Moreover Lions club of Dehiwala North contributed in arranging refreshments for the blood donors and together with the assistance of Waduwegama merchants’ society, tea and lunch were provided for the resource personnel.

Diabetes & Vision Camp

Aligning with the Lions Club International , serving to take care of Diabetes and Vision are two core project areas the Lions club of Dehiwala North is focused. Accordingly, Eye Camp and Diabetes Screening project was successfully held on 25th September 2022 at Kadawatha Town. During this service project 177 people were screened for diabetes who are overweight or with obesity and have other risk factors. The suspected participants were referred to further consultation and aware for non-medical procedures Healthy meal, Sports & Recreation activities, Regular testing etc.)

Further many people from the locality also took part in the eye camp and we were able to donate 263 glasses for the ones who had vision defects. All the beneficiaries were absolutely happy about our effort. Although health is an utmost necessity for everyone, right now with the economic burdens and financial pressure many are not able to spend money for health scanning or health equipment. Hence the project added a lot of value to upgrade the quality of living of people in Kadawatha area.

Lions Club of Galkissa, Kadawatha Jaya Mawatha Welfare Society and Rotary Club of Hills Kellyville- New South Wales, Australia joined their hands with Lions Club of Dehiwala North to make this event a success.

Haritha

Implementing the “Siyak Sipsal” Project in 2022, Lions Club of Dehiwala North has selected to help WP/HO/Viyadeepa Maha Vidyalaya in a tree plantation project. The school emphasizes, encouraging school students for tree planting, taking care of plants, paying attention to food security is an important need of the time. Self- growing. Home gardening should be practiced from the school age itself.

Hence identifying the requirements of the school, Lions club of Dehiwala North has initiated the."Haritha - Greenery" Project. The first phase of the project was held on 15th Sep 2022 at WP/HO/Viyadeepa Maha Vidyalaya school donating 565 no's of plants for school gardening. Different types of plants - vegetables, fruits, medicine plants worth of LKR 25300 were donated by Lions Club of Dehiwala North.

As the second phase of this project, Lions Club of Dehiwala North further donated facilities for Printed Name Boards of Plants worth of LKR 5700, further uplifting the quality of the school garden. Later in a school gardening competition held by the zonal educational office of Homagama the school was selected among the best school gardens of the zone.

Donation of Reading Glasses (Police Day)

Serving to take care of vision is a core project area Lions Club of Dehiwala North focuses in adhering to the Lions Club International. Along with the Poliice Day held on 9th September, Wellawatte Police Sri Lanka conducted a Health Camp at the Vihare Lane Buddhist Temple premises to coincide with the 156th Anniversary Celebration of the Police Force. Lions Club of Dehiwala North was able to join with Wellawatte Police in this service project, providing 162 Reading Glasses worth of LKR 27540 and onsite service for the Eye Camp.

Dream Soccer – Phase 01

Sports is an integral part in School education. As the students acquire knowledge and education, it is also important that they grow healthy, practice some sports, engage in some team activity for their personality growth. With the aim of uplifting sports facilities in schools “Dream Soccer” project was initiated. As the first phase Lions club of Dehiwala North served the Hartley College, Point Pedro on 29th July 2022, donating 45 pairs of Impact Guards to 3 soccer teams of the school. Met with a country situation where education for school children is challenged, schools and parents can hardly afford sports equipment. Hence it is natural that the students get deviated from sports. The principal, sports coach and the soccer team players believe this kind donation in such a situation is a helping hand for all the students. Rotary club of Hills Kellyville has contributed with the funds for this project to bring hope for school children.

Adare Aran (Accompanying Love)

"Adare Aran" was a service project conducted by Lions Club of Dehiwala North together with Leo Club of University of Moratuwa. With the aim of bringing joy and smiles to innocent hearts of children this project was organized at Mother Theresa Children's Home Moratuwa on 27th July 2022. "Adare Aran" Project extended to the scope of providing a delicious evening meal for kids, sharing a quality time singing and performing for them and gifting kids with clothes, stationary items and toys. The light in kids' eyes and smiles and laughter said it all about the happiness we were meant to give, accompanying Love.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Lionistic year 2021/22

Key Projects 2021/22

Spandana

Divisional Hospital C – Kottukachchiya, Puttalam which has a lack of infrastructure facilities. Our main objective was to improve the facilities of the hospital and create a better environment for patients to check their diseases easily and get treatments in a pleasant environment. We also hope to make the duty of the doctors easy while contributing to the betterment of the health sector of the country.

Under this project, we were able to donate ECG Machine - 01 Digital Pressure Meter – 02 Water filter (Aqua RO) – 01 Mattress – 06 Stand fans – 02 First, we searched about Divisional Hospital C – Kottukachchiya which really needs the support of us.

Unfortunately, we had to hold our project due to islandwide travel restrictions in the country due to Covid-19. We started the proceedings of the project again in September 2021. But the situation in the country restricted us from visiting the hospital.

Hence, we made the order from Damro Industries, Galle branch and they delivered fans and mattresses from the Puttalam branch of Damro. Further in October 2021, we ordered and sent the water purifier, ECG machine and Blood pressure measuring machines were sent in November to the hospital.

Members of the Leo Club of the University of Moratuwa and the Leo Club of Colombo Monarch gave their fullest contribution to help the hospital the maximum. #DNLions #Lions306A2

Eye Camp

We provided several free trials in this project which includes, free eye examination, distribution of free spectacles, free and identified 5 cataract patients and already allocated them to Lions Eye hospital Kadawatha done operations were successfully done. In order to conduct this Eye camp, we had to choose a place that accommodates around 200 people and we were able to conduct the project successfully with more than 265 participants.