Immediate past President of the CSA and now on the Committee, Lion Harry de Sayrah OAM JP recently received the 40-year Milestone Chevron Award for serving the Community of Australia and Sri Lanka. His dedication to Lionism commenced in Sri Lanka when Commodore Malcolm de Costa, the then ADC to the Governor-General, invited him to join the World’s Largest Service Organisation in 1974.He held positions such as the first elected President of the Lions Club of Kollupitiya and Deputy District Governor of District 306 Sri Lanka and in 1989 was transferred to the Lions Club of Bankstown in Sydney. Harry continued to be an active member in Sydney and was soon elected as the 39th President of the Lions Club of Bankstown District 201N5 Australia in 1995.
Though living in Sydney, Harry’s greatest ambition was to help the needy people of Sri Lanka and he was involved in the Club’s Save the Sight Project by exporting used Australian spectacles to the Sri Lankan Lions Clubs. While the inmates of the Silverwater Jail did the packaging for export, Singapore Airlines gave him a helping hand by air lifting, free of charge, 150 kilos of the spectacles at a time. This benefited one million needy Sri Lankans from all walks of life.
The used Spectacle Project spread throughout Australia till Lions Australia took over this great humanitarian project and recommended Harry to the Governor-General’s Honours Committee for an Order of Australia Award. He received OAM (Order of Australia Medal) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2007.
Harry went further. He persuaded his Lions Club to donate $50,000 during the 1994 Tsunami in Sri Lanka and the Board readily agreed – the Old Boys Union of St Joseph’s College, Colombo, rebuilt part of a Catholic School down south of Colombo and the Lions in Sri Lanka built an 8-bed ward and named it “Bankstown Ward” at the Lions Eye Hospital in Panadura.
Lions Clubs International quickly recognised these great humanitarian projects initiated by Harry and presented him with the Lions highest award, the “Melvin Jones Fellowship” and invited him to Life Membership of Lions Clubs International.
Harry has been the Treasurer of the Lions Club Bankstown for more than a decade and continues to help, through Lions, various Sri Lankan organisations in Sydney.
(Published courtesy of The Ceylankan)
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