Blum has donated €99,990 (£85,476) to Light for the World to fund 3,333 eye operations for the young and the elderly in need. The fittings brand donated one €30 cataract operation per visitor who signed the guest book at the hybrid Blum Connects trade fair.
Interzum could not be held in Cologne this year, however Blum put on its own event with a large digital offering and smaller local events for customers wishing to attend in person.
Philipp Blum, managing director of Blum, said: “As a company, we also have a responsibility towards society as a whole. Life-saving eye operations allow people in developing countries to go to school or find a job, giving them a new outlook on life.”
More than two billion people around the globe have impaired vision, of which 36 million are blind – with around half of this figure being caused by cataracts. Light for the World is an independent Austrian charitable organisation that has been running for over 30 years.
Light for the World focuses on preventing and treating curable conditions that cause blindness, with the majority of its work being done in Africa. A mobile team works to deliver life-saving eye operations, build hospitals or help to train ophthalmologists and opticians.