On World Sight Day, P&G is sharing smiles with 2000+ people across the United States who are blind or visually impaired (BVI)
Our founder’s children, inspired to make a difference in this community, were early supporters of Clovernook Center for the Blind & Visually Impaired in Cincinnati. In 1903, Clovernook Center became the first Home for Blind Women in Ohio.
Today, Clovernook Center is the largest braille printing house in the world by volume.
We all understand that this new ‘normal’ of COVID-19 is challenging for our employees and society at large, but the blind and visually impaired (BVI) are uniquely impacted by this crisis. The blind community is especially vulnerable as they depend heavily on the sense of touch or guides to navigate the world. Shopping both online and in-store poses new challenges making it very challenging for the blind. Clovernook Center and Matthew 25: Ministries have teamed up with P&G to provide more than 300 emergency relief care packages locally with essential items during Covid-19 pandemic. Over 2,000 care packages have been distributed to the most vulnerable BVI consumers in 6 key US hot spots including New York City, Orlando, Florida, Seattle, Washington, San Francisco, New Orleans and Cincinnati with the help of the American Council of the Blind.
“P&G’s accessibility team wanted to make sure we helped people with disabilities as part of P&G’s relief efforts,” said Susan Baillely, a P&G perfumer who herself is visually impaired.
“The blind and visually impaired have been hugely impacted by COVID-19. Having a personal appreciation for the challenges, our team wanted to provide some essential items for the BVI community to remove at least one layer of stress.”
Care packages contain full-size personal and home care cleaning products from P&G and a letter both in braille and large print giving background on the contents. Specialized help through Be My Eyes app will also enable the additional 1:1 help for any questions regarding the P&G products. The care packages were assembled by Clovernook Center and P&G staff, some who are themselves blind.
Check out the fully accessible, audio described video to see the highlights from the care package assembly team.
Did You Know: World Sight Day, is observed annually on the second Thursday of October and is a global event meant to draw attention on blindness and vision impairment. 2020 marks the 20th year for World Sight Day.
P&G is proud to lead this work with partners Matthew 25: Ministries, Be My Eyes, American Council of the Blind and Clovernook Center. Check out our blog from World Sight Day 2019 and how Be My Eyes is supporting consumers and employees here.
