New members of Lions Club Seychelles sworn in |17 June 2019

The Lions in a family photo

New members of the Lions Club of Seychelles were officially inducted and sworn in during a brief ceremony at Asian Fusion Restaurant, Au Cap on Saturday evening.

In the presence of Lions and members of sister clubs including the Melvyn Jones Foundation, the Rising Lions and Centennial Women’s Lions Club, new members were installed for the Lions year 2019-2020.

The event started off with the customary lions roar followed by a Lions toast in which the Lions proposed a toast to the health of the President of the Republic of Seychelles Danny Faure and to the international lions clubs.

Outgoing president of Lions Club of Seychelles (LCS) D.V Sharma then addressed all present detailing the numerous projects initiated by LCS under his leadership including nationwide kidney screenings, blood donation at Victoria Hospital, diabetes awareness walk, cancer awareness walk and the celebration of International Women’s Day whereby LCS honoured the Centennial Women’s Lions Club for their innovative ideas and contributions to society.

“Life is all about service and Lions Club of Seychelles has provided me with a platform to serve others in a systematic manner nationally. All of our service dreams materialised as we worked as a family unit – as a Lions team,” said Mr Sharma.

“For me, Lionism is an act of service to humanity, kindness, caring and sharing, helping others without expecting anything in return and most important at the time when it is needed. We all have lionism inside us and we just need to express ourselves,” Mr Sharma noted.

He continued his address by thanking all who have helped during his one-year reign as president of the Lions Club and by uttering praises for his successor Rajesh Pandya.

“I know that our club will continue to be successful and innovative under the leadership of president Rajesh Pandya. He will bring forth new ideas and make amazing efforts to move our club forward next year. I am excited for him to serve as president and know that his leadership and expertise will shine through and make us stronger,” Mr Sharma added.

Following his speech, Mr Sharma presented the newly inducted president Rajesh Pandya with the gavel and necklace customarily worn by the president of the Lions Club before Mr Pandya addressed all present, expressing his gratitude for all who have placed their trust in him and entrusted him as the president.

He vowed to continue striving hard for the benefit of the community and society and to maximise his time as president to bring about as much positive good as his predecessors.

Asides from a new president, there were several district appointments for the Lionistic year 2019-2020. Dr Sasikumar was inducted as the zone chairperson, Dhana Sasikumar is the new district office and environment chairperson for Mombasa and Seychelles (Region E) while Karpagam Senthilkumar is the district officer and family and women specialist for Mombasa and Seychelles (Region E).

Several awards were also presented during the soirée. Such awards were presented to the Lions Clubs of Seychelles at the Lions Club convention held in Eldoret, Kenya recently.

Lion Siva Pillay received an award for region chairperson while Ramu Pillay was awarded for his role as zone chairperson. Dr Sasikumar was awarded for his project ‘Feed the Hungry’ while Uma Ramani, the president of the Women’s Centennial Lions Club was awarded and recognised for the environmental projects initiated by the club under her leadership.

Karpagam Senthilkumar was awarded for her diabetes-related projects while LCS and the Melvyn Jones Foundation were both awarded for the kidney screening projects held over the past year. The Rising Lions of Seychelles was awarded for the best supporting club while D.V. Sharma himself clinched the International President Appreciation award as well as the best president award.

The award for best secretary went to Gopi Dubasia of the Melvyn Jones Foundation while Sureetha Mathur, also from the Melvyn Jones Foundation was awarded best treasurer.

Asides from awards to the members, outgoing president D.V. Sharma also presented awards to local media houses who have provided coverage to the numerous events organised by the Lions Clubs of Seychelles.