“Voluntarism is the sacrifice of time, treasure and talent for the love and benefits of our communities and humanity in general.” – DG Lion Kayode Oshinuga PMJF, NLCF
…When a leader commits self to service of humanitarianism, the communities get better for it and the result is indescribable, then he naturally reaps more grace to continuously serve humanity and making the world a better place.
The leader is none other than Lion Kayode Oshinugha PMJF, NLCF an exemplary volunteer who is an epithet of humanity.
He is the District Governor, 404B2 Nigeria, a leader who so much believes in the Lions motto “we serve”, little wonder the District theme under his leadership watch is ‘Service Our Way OF Life’. Recently, BRANDMATTERS MAGAZINE had an interview with him and he highlights the work done in the different sectors of Lions Clubs International, namely Vision, Diabetes, Childhood Cancer, Environmental Protection and Hunger Relief amongst other.
Journeying Into Insurance Company
I was actually a full art student who was so desirous of being a journalist, but somehow, I fell in love with insurance when Niger Insurance Company rented a portion of my dad’s apartment as their branch office in Minna. Insurance is part of life and vice versa.
Introduction into Lions Family
I was introduced into Lionism by Lion Dr. Teslim Sanusi, then the Vice President of Ilupeju Lions Club, who invited my late friend and I into the membership of the club. My friend was then the fiancé of his first daughter and later became Dr. sanusi’s son in-law. He passed on in 2006 when he was first vice president of Ilupeju Lions Club and District Cabinet Treasurer 2.
Defining a Lion
A Lion is that person who cares for his environment and the people in them, the one who promotes good fellowship and mutual understanding amongst all the peoples of the world amongst many other qualities.
Global Causes and More
Aside the 5 global causes focus areas of Lions club; we also have other activities and projects as follows: FIGHT AGAINST HIV/AIDS,
- provision of portable water to communities
- support the sick e.g sickle cell
- provide forum to discuss matters of public interest
- support orphanages and old people’s homes and other charities
- promote youth engagements
- Support to the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
Voluntarism
Voluntarism is the sacrifice of time, treasure and talent for the love and benefits of our communities and humanity in general.
Benefit of being a Lion.
The benefit of satisfaction of making a difference in the life of my community and the prestige and honour that comes with it; benefit of meeting and fellowshipping with great people and volunteers in Nigeria and across the world; benefit of improving my leadership skills e.t.c.
Areas of Concentration in remaining quarters
By God’s grace we shall be relating with directly or more directly with Lions and the communities that we serve.
Advice to Government on Community Projects
Government is trying their best. However, we will advice them to collaborate and partner with Lions so we can all focus on projects and programs that will forever keep touching the lives of the people and impacting the world.
Half Yearly Scorecard
We started this administration on July 1 to the glory of the Almighty God and to prepare ourselves for the task ahead, we put our heads together. We had leadership training for our club officers and also in the month of August, we went into youth activities where our clubs undertook the training and empowerment of our youths across the district. Some were taught life skills; some were given basic equipment to work. Also in the month of August, the most memorable event we had was the fundraising and the presentation of the new district governor, which happened on August 8 at Eko Hotels. It was a very memorable and successful event because we were able to raise funds, although not enough, but substantial funds that we needed to carry out the activities for the year.
In September, we continued with our youth program but also added childhood cancer advocacies across our district. Hunger relief projects also took place in our time, where all our members were on the field feeding the hungry and making life a bit more comfortable for them. October came with our eyes initiative because in October we have World Sight Day and that was the first major activity of the district as far as the district was concerned. The first major activity of the district was on October 14 when we screened over 800 people who had had eye defects. About 250 free eyeglasses were given while we referred about 100 for further checks. Those who needed eye drops were given. Out of the 100 that were recommended for further checks, 50 were recommended for cataracts surgery. Out of those 50, three of the cases actually touched me; one was a 13-year-old boy. To operate on that boy, special anesthesia had to be provided to the hospital and other things, and thank God the operation was successful. Also, during the process of preparing those patients who needed surgery, we discovered that two of them are HIV positive, so we had to provide personal protective equipment that the doctors and nurses would use to protect themselves while carrying out the surgery. If you ask me, that was the most touching part of October and a very fulfilling one.
There are two more reasons why it was touching for me; these surgeries were undertaken at a Lions Clubs Eye Centre, located at Sango-Ota, Ogun State. This centre was built in 2006/2007 and I remember that I was part of the committee that worked hard to make sure that the project would come to reality.
Now, as a district governor, I am reaping the fruit of it by also sending patients there to be operated on, and to the glory of God they all came back successful. We also had a screening at Osun State at the palace of Oluwo of Iwo where about 500 people were screened, eyeglasses were given, eye drops were given, those who were scheduled for surgery would be undertaken this December, and the reason why it has taken this long is that the Lions Club has an ultra-modern eye centre at Osogbo, which is going to be commissioned this month so those patients in Osun State would be the first set of people to utilize that theatre once it is commissioned.
In Kwara State, due to logistics, we haven’t had the screening, but it would be done any time from next week as other axis would undergo screening of patients, giving of eyeglasses to those who need it and other eye medications. We would also slate those who need eye surgery. At Ekiti, we also held a screening at the school for the blind in Ikere-Ekiti in October. We discovered two students who were not actually supposed to be in that school because what they actually needed was just minor care, eyeglasses, eye drops, and other antibiotics. But because their parents are very poor and uninformed, once the children start exhibiting issues of eyes sight, they just push them to the school for the blind. So when Lions got there, they screened all the students there and they found two, and what the doctors told us is that after the surgery they would no longer need to be in the school for the blind because they will be able to see normally. The month of October was personally a joyous and fulfilled one because we were able to reach a lot of people and give sight to many also.
In November, we had the month of diabetes. Diabetes is one of the greatest silent killers of humanity in the world. We did advocacies through social media, carried out virtual lectures and training for people on how to live a healthy life, both for those who are already diabetic and for those who are not even diabetic. We did about three virtual lectures on zoom for people, not only Lions. On November 13 we had a massive road show along with all the areas in Ikeja and after the road show, we settled down to screening members of the public at two different locations; one at Computer Village and one under the bridge of Ikeja Bus-stop and people who were passing by branched to have their blood pressure and sugar level checked free of charge. So many patients were discovered, and because we have a working relationship with the Ilupeju Lions Club Clinic at LASUTH, we referred all those people to LASUTH and the information that is getting back to us indicates that they have begun treatment and management of their aliment.
December as we know it is a month of merriment, holidays, and fellowship but that does not mean that we would not serve, we would perform extraordinary service and that has started from the World AIDS Day that we have organised, and our outing was awesome. We had collaboration with Lagos State Agency against HIV/AIDS, which we kicked off some days back where the district governor was given a seat among Lagos State officials to sit with them and was given the last spot to speak. It happened that I was the only one who got applause for that speech. That opened the month of December for us. At the sideline of that flag off, the Iyaloja of Ikeja approached us and said that she has gone into the market and her people have also requested that we provide BP and blood sugar screening for them
This is also being done in Osun, Ekiti, Kwara, and other areas.
So those are some of the highlights of what we have done in the past six months.
Project so dear to him
I will say Vision. I choose the vision program because we made a lot of impact on the people, and we had the groundbreaking ceremony of our core project, the construction of the Lions Clubs Eye Clinic at Ogbomosho General Hospital, Oyo State on November 11, and work has started there. There is also an eye clinic, which Lions are constructing at General Hospital, Kwara State.
Covid—19 Awareness for Safety
COVID-19 awareness has not stopped. We have continued with advocacy on social media, within our meetings, and we have continued to advocate for keeping safe especially now that we are in the fourth wave. We pray that it would not be as bad as the second and third wave but we are not going to pull our legs off the pedal, we are going to sensitize the general public to keep safe since we don’t even know the characteristics of this Omicron. All those on social media talking are just guessing, the full characteristics have not been determined yet but in that regard, we have to take caution and we are urging all our members to keep safe. In fact, our safety control officer just discussed with me that we need to step up our advocacies and awareness program for COVID-19.
Describing Tenure
I have spent six months in the saddle with six months to go. I am not yet fulfilled. I came in to do so many things and to the glory of God we have been able to achieve so many things but we can still do better. Before the end of this month, we are going to have an evaluation session, my cabinet, my team, and we would lock ourselves up in 24/48 hours, no distractions, no phone. We are going to evaluate what we have done, what we have missed, and what we can do better so that in the second half of the year I can come out and say yes, I am fulfilled. But as for now, as much as I have done, I am not yet fulfilled.
