Fair gifts have a great tradition for Austrian fittings manufacturer Blum – but not in the conventional sense. Visitors to interzum 2013 in Cologne were again asked to forgo their gifts and instead sign the visitors’ book at Blum’s booth. Blum donated 10 euros per signature to a good cause. The donation again went to “Light for the World”, an Austrian organisation that operates on an international scale to help people with eye disease, the blind and people with other handicaps in the poor regions of the world.

30 euros for an eye operation

Every five seconds, a person goes blind in the Third World; every minute a child. About 50 per cent of blindness all over the world is caused by cataract. A 15-minute operation (which costs 30 euros) suffices to replace the clouded lens with an artificial one, restoring people’s eyesight. 40,700 cataract operations were carried out in Africa, Asia, Latin America and South-East Europe last year. These operations restored the eyesight of people who would otherwise be blind for the rest of their lives. Blum has supported “Light for the World” for many years. It has always been important to the company that the donation is mainly used to help the weakest members of society: children and the elderly. Thanks go in particular to the fair visitors for forgoing their gifts.

Source: Blum