How Bethuadahari Lions Club turned a community’s belief — and one unusual request on a wedding invitation — into a hospital.
When a young woman in Bethuadahari sent out her wedding invitations, she included a note alongside the usual details. “No gifts please,” it read. “But if you still wish to give, donate toward the hospital.” It was a small line on a card, but it said everything about the community that was building Kusum Hira Lions Eye and Health Care Hospital.
Eastern India carries a significant healthcare burden — rising rates of diabetes and cardiovascular disease alongside persistent infectious illnesses, often in communities where poverty limits access to even basic care. In the rural areas around Nadia in West Bengal, that gap is felt acutely. Bethuadahari Lions Club, District 322B1, recognized it and decided to do something permanent about it.
The club had just 35 members when the project began. The land came from local residents who donated it. The funds came from those same members, who set about raising what was needed. As the hospital took shape, the project itself began drawing people in. Membership grew from 35 to 109 — not through any formal campaign, but because people wanted to be part of what was being built.
On March 27, 2026, International President A.P. Singh inaugurated Kusum Hira Lions Eye and Health Care Hospital. Situated near Bethuadahari and built specifically to serve the surrounding rural population, the hospital was designed around need — the right facility, in the right place, for people with the least access to care elsewhere.
Senior Lions leaders from District 322B1 and neighbouring districts, club members, dignitaries, and local residents gathered for the inauguration — a reflection of how far the project had travelled from that first discussion among 35 people.
In many ways, that note on the wedding invitation captured the story itself: when a community decides something matters, it finds a way.
Senior Lions leaders from District 322B1 and neighbouring districts, club members, dignitaries, and local residents gathered for the inauguration — a reflection of how far the project had travelled from that first discussion among 35 people.
In many ways, that note on the wedding invitation captured the story itself: when a community decides something matters, it finds a way.