To qualify for vision assistance from the Lions Club, you must be severely vision-impaired and meet the requirements set out by the chapter providing eyeglasses. The exact disability and financial requirements for free eyeglasses are set by local Lions Club chapters; contact a local chapter for application information and a list of specific requirements.
The Lions Club is a service organization that raises money for charitable causes. It runs numerous vision programs in addition to providing free eyeglasses to qualifying individuals. These programs include river blindness prevention, childhood blindness programs, vision screenings and Special Olympics programs for the blind. The Lions Club also provides affordable hearing aids for qualifying individuals and works with diabetes prevention projects.
Membership in the Lions Club is available by invitation only. Specific membership rules are set by individual chapters, but generally new members must be invited by an existing member. The individual chapter's board of directors approves all nominations. Although the Lions Club has allowed chapters to admit women since 1987, individual chapters are permitted to exclude women.
There are over 1 million Lions Club members in more than 200 countries. The United States, Canada, China and Mexico are home to the oldest Lions Clubs in the world.
