Rare honour for Mahendra Amarasuriya

BUSINESS LEADER, Mahendra Amarasuriya was recently elected as the International second Vice President of Lions Clubs International which is considered to be a rare honour for a Sri Lankan.

Under his new position, Amarasuriya plans to steer the 'sight first' project of the Lions which is aimed at 'giving sight' to the people. Through which he plans to provide monetary assistance for those who are suffering from cataract and to provide facilities for hospitals to speed up cataract operations.

"From 1990 to 1995, we raised 155 million US dollars for this project all over the world. Many developed countries donated, and thousands of people of poor communities benefited," says Amarasuriya.

And the funds were used to perform six-million cataract operations and to build 300 new hospitals around the world.

In Sri Lanka, special operating theatres in hospitals in Moneragala, Badulla, Bandarawela, Puttalam, Nawalapitiya, Kandy, Kurunegala and Galle will be set up. Under this, each theatre will be equipped with equipment to the value of Rs. six million. There is a large number of people who are in need of cataract operations.

"We hope that the present backlog for cataract operations can be eased with the new facilities," Amarasuriya says.

Tsunami reconstruction

"We are also doing many projects in the tsunami reconstruction and rehabilitation areas. From day one of the tsunami disaster, we got involved in a lot of projects," he said.

Some of the projects in line include housing construction, fishing gear distribution and support build up livelihoods.

"Our hope is to build 4 to 5 percent of the required housing units for the tsunami victims.

"It's a daunting task. We have to do a lot of groundwork and raise funds to fulfil this dream," he said.

In the education field, we are planning to promote a disciplined culture among children. We have a program 'to say no to drugs and abuse' and we are hoping to educate the younger generation on these concepts.

We want to see that the young people of our country would grow up to be healthy, wise people in the future.

Lions Clubs International is known as the world's largest service-oriented club organisation represented in 194 countries with 1.4 million members. There are over 46,000 clubs all over the world.

Lions Club's beginnings in Sri Lanka were quite humble. The first Colombo Club which was set up in 1958, was confined to the elite of Colombo.

Since then, Lions Club concept grew rapidly and today, there are many clubs around the country, including the North and East. Its main objective is to serve the under privileged, poor people.

Considering that Sri Lanka's membership in this organisation amounts to less than one percent of the total membership, Amarasuriya's achievement is an event all Sri Lankans should be proud of.

Amarasuriya who was appointed to the international post in June this year will continue as the first Vice President in 2006/2007 and will be elected to the number one slot as the International President in 2007/2008. Thus Amarasuriya will become the first Sri Lankan to be chosen for this prestigious position.

Amarasuriya being one of the first members of the Lion Movement in Sri Lanka counts 38 years of social service as a prominent member of the Club.

During 38 long years, with his first membership in the Galle Club, he has participated in grass roots level Lions activities and held various leadership positions as District Governor in 1978/79, Multiple Council Chairperson in 1979/80 and International Director in 1991/93.

During his long Lionistic career, he attended 22 international conventions and 18 Lions Area Fora chairing two of the Fora as the International Director. This international experience and exposure he obtained made him eligible for elevation to this prestigious post.

Referring to the clubs in Sri Lanka, he said that they also plan to increase the number of clubs in Sri Lanka and strengthen the membership in the near future. "We want to start new clubs in Jaffna and Batticaloa districts," he said. - (CJ)