The Shamir team with their mobile lab in Warsaw.
 
WARSAW—Shamir Group employees around the world are mobilized for humanitarian aid for Ukrainian refugees in Warsaw. Since March 29, Shamir volunteers have been operating a mobile laboratory for testing and fitting eyeglasses for Ukrainian refugees at the Patk Expo complex in Warsaw, Poland. Shamir has established three areas at the site: a reception area, an area for selecting eyeglass frames and a mobile laboratory for eyeglass production. The labs on wheels are equipped with advanced technology and can produce about 150 pairs of lenses per day, including coating and mounting the lenses into frames.

Children and adults arriving at the site are given a vision test. Then they choose a frame. Before the end of the day, they receive ready-made glasses. Thousands of frames brought to Poland were donated from Israel by leading companies such as Opticana, along with many others. Additional donations were made by customers of Shamir companies in Portugal, Spain, Germany, the U.K., and the Netherlands.

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Some of the Shamir volunteers who are providing Ukrainian refugees with new eyeglasses.
Shamir’s 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. They are led by Nir Shmuel, Shamir Group COO, Ronen Tsur, general manager of Shamir Poland and Luis Feijo, general manager of Shamir Portugal.

"Eyeglasses are an essential accessory in everyday life for everyone who needs them,” said Nir Shmuel. “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. 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 their hands on the new glasses and has the ability to see again.


Ukrainian refugees waiting to get new eyeglasses at Shamir's facility in the Patk Expo complex in Warsaw.

"The intention is to stay there for about two weeks as part of which we will be able to provide hundreds of pairs of eyeglasses to anyone who needs them,” added Shmuel. “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.”