L’Oréal Citizen Day raises funds for the underprivileged.
Contributed By Yeo Zhi Qi
 |
| CN PHOTO: Michael Chan |
Against the backdrop of a cloudless sky, balloons and carnival games, L’Oréal’s business partners and employees came together for the leading beauty company’s inaugural Citizen Day. The newly-launched annual event, dedicated to L’Oréal’s international and local community initiatives, saw participants letting their hair down for a fun time of booth games, balloon sculpting, as well as massage services offered by friends from the Singapore Association for the Visually Handicapped.
Through the sale of carnival coupons which L’Oréal Singapore matched dollar-for-dollar, L’Oréal Citizen Day marked an opportunity for the corporation to give back to the community with all proceeds going to Lighthouse School and SAVH. Attendees of the annual event got a glimpse of L’Oréal’s philanthropic projects through the different booths set up according to L’Oréal’s community initiatives in three priority areas—Solidarity, Science and Education.
Under the pillar of “Solidarity,” L’Oréal works toward offering a helping hand to the underprivileged in society. Driven by the belief that everyone has a right to beauty and that grooming is deeply linked to confidence and self-esteem, L’Oréal has since reached out to more than 100 adults and students through their monthly “Touching Colours” program held in partnership with SAVH and Lighthouse School to pledge their support for the visually impaired.
In a bid to raise funds, managing director of L’Oréal Singapore, Christopher Neo spontaneously offered his lips to be colored by the highest bidder in the crowd. It was all in the name of good fun as L’Oréal employees edged each other to donate generously for a good cause and also to catch their superior in blood-red lipstick.
As Neo expressed, “For over a century, L’Oréal has been dedicated to beauty and committed to making the world more beautiful. The L’Oréal Citizen Day is therefore a declaration of our long-term commitment to the local community through program such as ‘Touching Colours’ and ‘For Women in Science National Fellowships.’”
“Touching Colours” embraces both the young and old with modules ranging from skincare, make-up, hair-care and styling. Customized to suit participants’ needs, the workshops have benefitted more than 54 adults of SAVH and students from the Lighthouse School.
Another program working to bring the cosmetics industry together in solidarity efforts is “Look Good Feel Good,” which is targeted at helping patients, in particular women, deal with appearance-related effects of medical treatments, such as hair loss, dry skin and hyper-pigmentation, through grooming workshops and sponsor kits. As the name suggests, the program aims to build the self-esteem of participants through collaborations with major hospitals to conduct monthly grooming workshops.
Stemming from the simple belief that the world needs science and science needs the world, L’Oréal’s support for science works toward discovering and promoting women scientists and researchers. Founded 12 years ago, L’Oréal-UNESCO Awards For Women rewards five distinguished researchers for their breakthroughs in science and helps young researchers by providing research grants. On the local scene, cancer researcher Dr. Marissa Teo from the National Cancer Centre was the first Singaporean to receive the UNESCO-L’Oréal For Women in Science International Fellowship for her promising work.
Attendees of L’Oréal Citizen Day also gained deeper insights into the third pillar of L’Oréal’s philanthropic activities—Education—which is driven by the cause to fight against the effects of ignorance. One such initiative is the Hairdressers Against AIDS program which consists of training a network of hairdressers about AIDS prevention so they can pass the message to the public. The program which has been set up in more than 26 countries was launched in 2008 in Singapore, with more than 1,000 hairdressers having undergone the program.
Booths showcasing the L’Oréal Corporate Foundation featured global programs and pilot projects that L’Oréal carries out, such as the Haiti Disaster Relief. The L’Oréal Foundation and employees donated a total of 1 million Euros to NGO partners around the world working on immediate relief in Haiti. In Singapore, a total of S$10,000 was donated to the Singapore Red Cross.
In line with L’Oréal’s belief of the important role that beauty plays in society, L’Oréal Foundation also published a human sciences reference work on beauty titled 100,000 years of Beauty.
There was even more reason to celebrate when it was announced at the end of the event that a total of S$30,000 was raised during L’Oréal Citizen Day for its “Touching Colours” partners, the SAVH and Lighthouse School, through fundraising via coupon sales, which was matched dollar-for-dollar by L’Oréal.
