Shalonee Gunness: Selflessly serving the community 

Her fruitful year as President of the Lions Club of Curepipe is over but her passion for volunteering knows no end. Shalonee Gunness, a professional with some 20 years of experience in sales, marketing and communication, strongly believes that one should always give back to the community what life has generously offered to him/her. She shares with us her journey. 

In this fast moving world, life is so busy that we get engrossed in our daily tasks. As we focus on ourselves, we put aside what is happening around us and in our community. However, thanks to many selfless people, the community is positively moving forward. Shalonee Gunness is one of those humble and committed persons who devote much of their time to social work and volunteering in order to alleviate the lives of the needy.

As her mandate as President of the Lions ends this June, Shalonee looks back on her pathway. Hailing from a family of entrepreneurs, with her father working in his own textile business, Shalonee says that she has been involved since a young age not only in entrepreneurship but also in serving her local community. “Very early, I started serving my local community with my father chairing and being an active member of various socio-cultural organisations around the island,” she explains. As Shalonee puts it, “social work and volunteering runs in the family fabric.”

A former student of Queen Elizabeth College, and holder of a Masters in Business Administration from University of Surrey, UK, Shalonee has some 20 years of experience in fields such as sales, marketing & communication. In fact, over the years, the young professional has built a sound knowledge in business fundamentals, business strategy, regional exports, brand management, project management and marketing communication plan implementations as well as monitoring and worked in well-known local as well as international companies. “I have recently decided to step into the entrepreneur shoes of my late father and fully focus on the family business operations as well as set up my own consulting agency,” she shares. 

It is in 1993 that young Shalonee joined the Junior Chamber Port Louis. “I was driven by a strong belief that one should always give back to the needy what life so generously brought to you and as a privileged member of society being provided with basic necessities shelter, food, education and an ability to fend for oneself and our loved ones.” However, with time, as she also got caught up in the hectic and demanding life, Shalonee decided to join the Lions five years ago. “Having realised that I was becoming a pure product of corporate world, struggling with work-life balance, I decided to go on a career break and focus on my personal life as well as what matters to me. I was invited to join Lions Club, Curepipe, to devote time to social work,” she says. 

A lion’s heart

Shalonee does not hide that she is proud of her decision of joining the Lions Club International's recognised, transparent, and ethical solidarity human chain which gathers more than 1.4 million volunteers in more than 210 countries across 460,000 clubs. What motivated her to dedicate much of her time to volunteering is the idea that her actions could positively impact the lives of others. 

From July 2016 up to June this year, Shalonee acted as the President of the Lions. She describes her year as an “exceptional” one. “It has been a remarkable and rewarding year of service where we have been able to implement innovative projects working in collaboration with not only other Lions Clubs but also service clubs such as the Rotary of Vacoas, Ladies Inner Circle and Junior Chamber Curepipe,” she explains. As the Lions worldwide have been working on four focus areas of centennial community service projects, namely Relieving hunger, Empowering Youth, Sharing the Vision, and Protecting the Environment, Shalonee and her dedicated members of the Lions Club Curepipe initiated various projects in these areas. 

Some of the projects initiated are ‘Feed a child project’, donation of 100 blankets to needy families, food collection and distribution, screening 100 athletes of Special Olympics Mauritius with mental deficiencies, ‘Sightfirst kids project,’ which is eye screening of primary school pupils from vulnerable areas, awareness campaigns on the nefarious effects of drugs and workshops on human values, donation of a bench made of recycled plastic to the Municipal Council of Curepipe, empowering 200 women entrepreneurs through two training sessions on Financial Literacy and Business Etiquette with the collaboration of Sugar Industry Labour Welfare Fund and Ministry of Gender Equality and Family Welfare, among many others. And as recognition for what they have been doing, the Lions Club of Curepipe was awarded the 1st prize at the District 403 B2 Club Competition for outstanding performance in most areas.

Shalonee says that she has achieved what she planned according to her mandate theme ‘Entrepreneurship and Youth’. “We have been recognised at Lion District level for the high quality, reach and impact of our innovative projects by being ranked as the 1st Club, having over 63 clubs of the Indian Ocean islands. I must say that I have achieved the set objectives according to the programme I presented at the start of my mandate.”

Her greatest satisfaction is the smile she has brought to many needy people.  Shalonee encourages all, young and old, to join the club and the work they are doing.  Her advice to the Mauritian youth: “I can only pass on the meaningful message of our Lions Club International founder member Melvin Jones, which became a guiding principle for public-spirited people the world over. This message sums it all: “You can't get very far until you start doing something for somebody else.”

Lions Club International celebrated its 100 years of existence on the 7th of June 2017 and has reached to date more than 150 million beneficiaries world-wide.