Members of Lions Clubs hold seminar in Haikou

The 57th OSEAL Forum opened in Haikou, capital of South China's Hainan province, on Nov 16, 2018. [Photo/Chinanews.com]

The 57th OSEAL Forum opened in Haikou, capital of South China's Hainan province, on Friday, bringing together around 6,000 members from home and abroad to discuss how to further promote building of charitable organizations and enhance friendly communications among the Lions Clubs across the world, in addition developing a platform for building a shared community for mankind.

With the theme of "service, sharing and progress", the three-day event was hosted by the China Council of Lions Club, which was supervised by the China Disabled Persons' Federation and organized by the Hainan Office of the China Council of Lion Clubs. This is the first time for the Lions Clubs International to hold an annual meeting on the Chinese mainland since the establishment of the global service organization in 1917 in Chicago.

To date, Lions Clubs International has 1.5 million members in 207 countries and regions, all of them volunteers.

OSEAL Forum, formerly known as the Asian Forum of the Lions Clubs International, was renamed the Orient and Southeast Asia Lions Forum in 1961.

Since then, countries and regions in the Asia-Pacific have been taking turns to host the forum to help enhance solidarity and cooperation among regional members, experience the joy of serving others and share the experience of dedication in the process of collaboration, and hold seminar and forums with a view to building an exchange platform, promoting the growth of members, maintaining and increasing their enthusiasm toward public service.

The China Council of Lions Clubs, established on June 14, 2005, in Beijing, is a public welfare, charity and service organization registered with the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

CCLC organizes and guides its clubs to implement community service activities, and keeps relationship with the Lions Clubs International as well as cooperates and communicates with other international organizations. It is becoming an emerging force on charity and voluntary-based community services and a window to demonstrate China's progress of civilization and overall development.

The services provided by members and clubs of CCLC include services for people with physical disabilities, poverty alleviation, disaster relief, educational assistantship, elderly care, public health and cultural communication.

Gudrun Yngvadottir, president of the Lions Clubs International, its first female leader, congratulated the successful opening of the meeting and said she was fully confident that the young CCLC will achieve rapid development in the future. Zhang Haidi, chairwoman of the China Disabled Persons Federation, called for more people and organizations to join the efforts of the Lions Clubs to offer love and support to people with physical disabilities, who are always the most needy groups in the world and help integrate them more into the society.