Fondation L’Occitane

Fondation L'OCCITANE has supported Orbis for 16 years, raising more than €1,600,000 (approx. £1.3m or $1.8m) in funding to support eye health training programmes worldwide.

The partnership with Orbis is part of L'OCCITANE Foundation’s global program called Union for Vision, which aims to provide eye care to more than 10 million people by 2020.

During the long partnership, L'OCCITANE’s funding has supported Orbis programs in Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, India and China.

As an example, in China over 1.5 million people received eye care thanks to L'OCCITANE’s support for a program to deliver village and school screenings, significantly contributing to the reduction of childhood blindness in Gansu province.

In 2011, L'OCCITANE donated €400,000 (approx. £330,000 or $450,000) towards the next-generation Orbis Flying Eye Hospital. The funds were used to sponsor the construction of the Patient Care & Laser Room which will serve as a laser treatment and training area, hosting patients and their families during pre- and post-operative assessments.

Kit Braden, Director of the L'OCCITANE Group and Orbis UK Trustee, attended the official launch in Los Angeles along with Nicole Parker, Senior PR Manager, New York.

They hosted a press conference, ribbon cutting and private tour of the new Flying Eye Hospital, joined by L'OCCITANE’s west coast District Managers, Cristi Palmer, Melissa Emberson and Amy King.

The L'OCCITANE Patient Care and Laser room was used for the first time during the Flying Eye Hospital’s 2016 training programmes in September and November in Shenyang, China and Medan, Indonesia respectively.

Orbis is extremely grateful for L'OCCITANE’s support of our programmes, their fundraising across the world and their solidarity in the fight against avoidable blindness.