Lions Giving Hearts and Hands in Haiti Two Years Later
Yvette is among the many Haitians who now have dreams for the future. She hopes to be the first in her family to attend college. She is among the 1,000 families who have a new place to live and new outlook on life because of Lions. Rebuilding homes and lives in Haiti continues two years after the January 12, 2010 earthquake. This month, Lions will officially inaugurate the National Nursing School of Port-au-Prince, where 350 students will study annually. Lions are also launching a project to build 400 additional homes and a community center to provide vocational training. Eight new classrooms are being constructed at the Notre Dame School, allowing 361 students to return to school. Several projects are also nearly complete, including 600 homes for families once living in Lions' tent cities. Many of the projects are in partnership with other organizations in order to leverage Lions' funds. The projects have recently been highlighted in several news stories. View our fact sheet and visit our Web site for more information.

Partnership with Special Olympics Expands to Help More Families
Aphiwe Qonya of South Africa is one of the 250,000 Special Olympics athletes who can now see better. With new glasses, he could read all of the words and numbers in the book for the first time, rather than guessing. For 12 years, Lions and Special Olympics have been partners in improving health and the quality of life for Special Olympics athletes through Opening Eyes. With the recent expansion of Lions' partnership with Special Olympics in his country, Aphiew can now benefit in other ways. Through Opening Eyes, athletes receive free vision screenings and eyewear. The program relies on thousands of volunteers, particularly Lions. LCIF has provided US$13 million in support of this partnership program. To build on the mission of improving health for athletes is the Family Health Forum. Lions help coordinate the forums where families learn about Lions Clubs, Special Olympics and the Opening Eyes program. They also learn of the challenges that athletes and their families face, while exploring ways to help facilitate better access to health care, education, social services and inclusion. This expansion program began in October with forums in South Africa as well as Namibia, Nigeria and Tanzania.

Sight for Kids Partnership Celebrates 10 Years of Saving Sight
Eight-year-old Viraj Madusan of Sri Lanka would have gone blind by age 14 without Sight for Kids. With timely treatment and eyeglasses, he is now seeing well. His story is similar to the 15 million other children helped in 10 Asian countries. This year Johnson & Johnson and LCIF celebrate 10 years of partnership on the Sight for Kids program, which provides vision screenings, eyeglasses, other treatments and eye health education for children. There is a great need for this program: an estimated 1.4 million children in the world are blind and three-quarters of them live in the poorest regions of Asia and Africa, most lacking access to eye care for often easily treatable conditions. A hands-on team effort, the screenings are coordinated by local Lions, Johnson & Johnson staff and local medical personnel. Johnson & Johnson has committed US$2 million to fund Sight for Kids.