Dear Editor,

Yuliya Popova’s column (Kyiv Post, Feb. 26, “Charity is great, but no need for go-go girls on the program”) regarding Burns Night (Feb. 20 charity event in Kyiv) is an extremely slanted version of events.

I fail to understand her motivation for writing it in this way. The opening sentence states that we are a “fellowship of Ukraine’s rich and successful.” She certainly got the profile of the average member of the Kyiv Lions Club quite wrong. It also appears that she is not familiar with the work of the Kyiv Lions Club. Had the journalist looked in to this, then she would not have produced such a misinformed column.

Members of the Kyiv Lions Club give many, many hours of personal service. We have also been out cleaning rubbish from beaches with our own hands. We have been on hospital wards re-painting the walls with our own tools. We have been in orphanages hugging children because we care. We have been in elderly care homes looking at the frail to help where we can. As one who has personally participated in all of the above, and more, in my six years of service to this club and our community, I am offended by what was written in the article.

Some of our club members are senior executives in their respective companies; many are not. Some of our members are self-employed. They are Ukrainians and guests of this great city. They are male and female. They are diverse, but what they all share is a common goal to help out just because they can, and in whatever way they can.

Some are able to get their companies to sponsor events or provide auction or raffle prizes. Some are able to sell raffle tickets on the night. Every member of the club is there to make the events of the Kyiv Lions Club successful in whatever way they can. The more money that is raised through nights like Burns Night, the more there is to spend on life-saving incubators for maternity hospitals, to give just one small, but important, example of the kind of financial help the Kyiv Lions Club is able to provide through nights like these.

Sincerely,

Paul Niland

Kyiv Lions Club past president