Bruker employees donate prescription glasses to support developing countries

Without corrective eyewear, something as simple as short sightedness can be devastating. In developing communities, access to a pair of glasses can be life changing for a visually impaired child or adult.

As part of Bruker’s charity initiative in 2020, employees across the French, German and Swiss sites have collected more than 260 pairs of glasses to donate to the French charitable organisation Lunettes sans Frontière (glasses without borders).

Founded in Alsace, France in 1974, Lunettes sans Frontière relies on donations of glasses that are no longer needed by their owners to recycle for use by people in need in developing countries. Each pair of glasses that comes in is sorted by teams of volunteers, machine-washed, checked by hand and assessed for its prescription, which is then marked on each lens for ease of handling at the destination.

As well as implementing a Covid-19 safe process for collecting the glasses via drop-off points in its offices, Bruker also stepped in to handle all packing and cover shipping costs to the overseas destination. To protect the environment, rather than manage shipments of bulky glasses cases, all glasses were packed individually without cases in recycled paper. This approach is adopted by the charity too, to avoid needlessly shipping glasses cases and keep shipping costs down, ensuring the maximum funding is available where it’s most needed.

The boxes of glasses are sent to locally established eyewear clinics, dispensaries and missions across Africa, South America and Asia, to benefit the most visually impaired people of the countries. These are staffed by healthcare professionals, who then assess the need and distribute the donated glasses accordingly.

Raphaelle Waechter, Senior Human Resources Business Partner at Bruker BioSpin added her thanks to all those involved:

“Donating a pair of glasses that are no longer needed might seem like a small contribution, but it makes a big difference to the life of a visually impaired individual who cannot afford to buy them. Short- or long-sightedness become real disabilities if left uncorrected. Short-sighted children, for example, cannot realistically do well in school if they can’t see properly, and life for a visually impaired adult is incredibly difficult without corrective eyewear – things that we take for granted in our society.

I would like to personally thank the Bruker teams that generously contributed: Bruker France SAS, Bruker Switzerland AG, Bruker BioSpin GmbH, Bruker MRI GmbH and Bruker Physik GmbH.”

Denis Schicklin, president of Lunettes sans Frontière added by letter: “We would like to thank Bruker for their kind donation of glasses as well as associated shipping. This support is so valuable and allows us to help those most in need.”