Lions Clubs International
Lions Clubs International is the largest volunteer-based organization in the world with over 1.4 million members in over 200 countries. Our motto is "We serve". We spend a lot of time and money in making our communities a better and safer place to live.
New Zealand is divided into 5 districts. There are around 1000 members in District 202D. There are around 10,000 Lion members in New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.
Mission statement and goals
The ultimate goal of the service is to normalize regular health checks. It has long been recognized that regular health checks detect undiagnosed medical and mental conditions and provide a timely intervention for further investigations and treatment.
It is the fence at the top of the cliff rather than the ambulance at the bottom.
People in rural communities are often socially and geographically isolated. They have difficulty in obtaining timely medical services which is made worse by their day-to-day work demands.
Originally this service was targeted at farmers and their families. Most of those seen were men. Now it has morphed into a rural and urban service and the gender balance is 50:50.
There is a huge demographic variation. At our first Field days at Manfeild, 138 people were seen. There were 29 different occupations and 13 different ethnicities. Ages varied from 8 to 92 years.