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SINGAPORE : L’Oréal Singapore showed its heart at the debut of its L’Oréal Citizen Day last Thursday at the Singapore Discovery Centre.
The annual global event organised by leading beauty company L’Oréal, focuses on international and local community initiatives in solidarity, education and science.
In Singapore, besides re-affirming its commitment to the three causes, L’Oréal also raised $30,000 for its Touching Colours partners — the Singapore Association for the Visually Handicapped (SAVH) and Lighthouse School.
The L’Oréal Touching Colours programme is a local initiative, based on the global commitment of solidarity, to touch lives through community outreach initiatives such as fund-raising, visits to SAVH and Lighthouse School, and grooming workshops for the visually impaired.
The grooming workshop teaches the basics of caring for the skin, make-up application as well as hairstyling and grooming.
Mr Christopher Neo, managing director, L’Oréal Singapore said: “Besides bringing friendship to the visually impaired, I think we do provide a practical element. These children will graduate and go out into the wider society — jobs, etc — and being neat and tidy is not only practical from a social point of view, but it’s also great for boosting confidence”.
SAVH executive director Judy Lim added: “Actually, visually-impacted people have a tendency to have poor hygiene habits so we’re very glad that L’Oréal has brought grooming to our doorstep. Now, a lot of people have this misconception that just because the blind cannot see, there is no need for them to look good. But this is wrong; people with visual impairments also want to look good. Looking good gives them more confidence and develops their self-esteem”.
However L’Oréal cannot claim the credit for this bold move said Mr Neo. “The team was inspired by a defining moment on Channel NewsAsia when Primetime Morning invited a little Korean girl — an amazing child prodigy on the piano — onto the show,” he said. “This girl is visually impaired and she plays the piano beautifully. When the presenter asked her what she would wish for if she could have anything in the world and, she said: ‘Make-up and lipstick’.
“If you work in L’Oréal and do not have a heart made of stone, you’d make the (emotional) connection. It was a very big insight that the visually impaired is as concerned as you and I about his or her outward appearance. Hence this project was born.”
After the programme aired, L’Oréal worked to customise a make-up kit with Braille so the visually impaired can identify the products. A specially-constructed make-up storage device with compartments was also developed to help them along.
“Unfortunately, when you can’t see, you need to rely on all your other senses except for sight; for example, you can also use smell to differentiate cleaners and powders. It’s leveraging off all the practical senses and using aids for the visually impacted, such as Braille, to help them along”, said Mr Neo.
A beneficiary of the Touching Colours programme is 35-year-old Carolyn Toh who was born blind.
“I am better able to express myself through make-up after attending the Touching Colours workshop. People compliment me and my sighted friends tell me my skin is better. It’s given me more confidence to meet people now”, she beamed.
Aside from the Touching Colours programme, L’Oréal has launched an online campaign supported by MediaCorp, dubbed ‘A more beautiful world with L’Oréal’.
The campaign invites Singaporeans to share their ideas on making the world a more beautiful place.
L’Oréal Singapore corporate communications manager Carolyn Giang explained: “For example, the idea could be:’ I want to go to Africa to teach children because education is power’. We’ll pick one idea that we think is the best and most in line with our values after we close the campaign. We’ll then help this person fulfil his idea by, for example, sponsoring his airline tickets and other needs to make it a reality”.
Share your beautiful idea
Log on to www.todayonline.com/AMoreBeautifulWorldwithLOreal and share your idea for a more beautiful world with L’Oréal and have that dream made into reality (open to Singaporeans till July 31 2010)
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