Shamir Group Employees Around the World are Mobilized for Humanitarian Aid for Ukrainian Refugees in Warsaw
Shamir is now voluntarily operating traveling laboratories for testing and fitting of eyeglasses among Ukrainian refugees, located at the Patk Expo complex in Warsaw, Poland. The mobile laboratories on wheels are equipped with advanced technology for rapid production of advanced lenses—about 150 pairs of lenses—including coating and fitting to the frame of glasses per day. Three complexes were established at the site: a reception complex, a complex for selecting glasses frames, and a mobile laboratory for production.
Shamir Optics' delegation in Poland consists of 16 of the company's employees from Israel, (including former immigrants from Ukraine) who volunteer together with other workers from Portugal, Poland, and France all for the benefit of the refugees led by Nir Shmuel, Shamir Group COO, and Ronen Tsur Shamir, Poland GM, and Luis Feijo Shamir, Portugal GM.
The mobile laboratories located in the Patk Expo Complex in Warsaw serves as a center for refugees from Ukraine where more than 8,000 refugees stay on average every day. The refugees, children and adults, arrive at the site where a vision test is performed to adjust the type of lenses. They then choose a frame for the glasses and before the end of the day, they receive ready-made glasses. The thousands of frames brought to Poland were donated from Israel by leading companies such as Opticana, in addition to donations made by customers of Shamir companies in Portugal, Spain, Germany, UK, and the Netherlands.
"Eyeglasses are an essential accessory in everyday life for everyone who needs them. It is difficult to describe what happens to children and adults during the war, who experience lost or broken spectacles from the battles and through that, lose the ability to communicate with the environment," Mr. Shmuel said. "During all hours of the day, our mobile labs serve the children, young people and adults who come to the complex and there are no words to describe the excitement of us all when the customer gets his hands on the new glasses and has the ability to see again.”
"The intention is to stay there for about 2 weeks as part of which we will be able to provide hundreds of pairs of eyeglasses to anyone who needs them. I would like to thank all the Shamir Optics teams in Israel and around the world, who came to Warsaw to help refugees and all our business partners,” Mr. Shmuel said.