Leading the world with a philanthropic soul – Dr. Naresh Kumar Aggarwal
I see my achievement as a victory of service. Wherever I go, I tell people that leadership can come from service. I, myself, am now a living proof of that.
- While delivering the Lions 100th Convention’s keynote, Former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon urged the organisation’s members to lead by example in their efforts to protect human rights and to be conscious of climate change. Does the organisation have any plans to constitute new policies related to these subjects?
The Environment has been a focus area for LCI for the past 3 years, and is an integral part of our new “LCI Forward” plan until 2021. In the last 3 years, within our Centennial Service Challenge, we served 50.7 million (5 crores) people in the area of Environment.
In India, in particular, the environment is more than just global warming. The Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan is a nationwide project for both the Indian Government and Indian Lions. We expect many Clubs to serve in this area this year.
- How do you see the challenges posed by the migration, global humanitarian crisis, malnutrition, growing economic challenges, raising non-communicable diseases and the conflicts in the Asian, African and European regions as the president of one of the most powerful humanitarian organisations of the world? How is the organisation helping those people who are affected by these crises?
The world has grave problems. Sadly, despite the sudden growth in our economy, nearly 800 million people still go to bed hungry every night.
Even though we are one of the associations having a huge network base, we can feed just 11 million people each year.
Added to this, there are many grave challenges in sanitation, healthcare, mental illness and et al.
Unfortunately, I cannot say that we will serve every need. I can only humbly say that that is our goal for this century –to serve every need by 2117. However, that is far away. For now, we have prioritized our service areas to serve as many urgent needs as possible.
This year, apart from feeding and educating tens of millions, and continuing our global legacy area of sight, we will launch the new global cause of diabetes. This disease kills around 3.4 million people each year and hurts over 420 million right now. We will make a massive dent in these numbers before the end of the year by mobilizing our membership to raise awareness and open clinics to diagnose and cure diabetes.
To add to the previous sentiment, I urge the readers of this article to become Lions. The only way we can feed 800 million hungry people, or give healthcare to the 2 billion who do not have it, is if we have many more Lions.
If you give us some of your time, we will give you a global network of leaders to make your mark in the world.
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