The El Salvador program initiative of the Bellingham Central Lions Club

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El Salvador

OUR EL SALVADOR INITIATIVE

Beginnings. As so often the case among Lions, our El Salvador Initiative began with the commitment of one Lion, Dr. Ken Henderson. Ken is an optometrist. In 2002, he was recruited to by the PeaceHealth El Salvator project to participate in their health clinics in El Salvador. Peacehealth does not have optometrists in their system and Lion Ken was asked to organize the ³eye team² for the missions and has done so each year since. This volunteer work brought him into contact with a variety of care providers and institutions in El Salvador. Everywhere he looked, Ken saw opportunities to help where the need was enormous - problems of just the sort that Lions are adept at solving.

So Ken went to work building bridges and herding "cats" - a noun used to describe Lions in a less-than-organized condition. He recruited Lions from Bellingham Central, Lions from other clubs in District 19-H, indeed, Lions from all over our Multiple District. And he also built the necessary bridges to the Lions from District D-2 in El Salvador, finding out what was already being done and how we might help.

The next step was to get all these Lions working together. To this end, Ken organized a working delegation of 17 Lions drawn from five clubs in Washington and British Columbia. In 2007, this delegation brought wheelchairs, walkers, glasses, medications, hearing aids and specialized low vision testing equipment to aid in the projects of the Lions of El Salvador.

While in El Salvador, the delegates participated in an Eye Clinic organized by the Mexijanos Lions Club and the Bellingham Central Lions Club twinned with the San Salvador Lions Club. Twinning is the process by which Lions Clubs in different countries join together in order to carry a program or project together.

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