L’Oréal strongly condemns the Russian invasion and the war in Ukraine, which is causing so much suffering to the Ukrainian people. Since February 24 our absolute priority has been to support our and their families.
We continue to support our employees in Ukraine with financial and psychological help. In neighboring countries, our teams on the ground have personally welcomed and often also host over 350 people including our Ukrainian colleagues and their families. We are providing accommodation, and psychological, financial, medical, and immigration support where needed. Wherever possible we provide temporary work opportunities for our employees in other L’Oréal subsidiaries. To assist our employees and their families in best managing this situation we are initiating foreign language classes. We are also helping other Ukrainian refugees to find job opportunities within the L’Oréal ecosystem.
To support people in Ukraine as well as refugees, L’Oréal Grope has allocated EUR 5 million to Humanitarian aid and has already provided essential care and hygiene products in neighboring European countries to respond to the need of the Ukrainian people. The teams have launched an employee crowdfunding campaign in support of the relief for Ukraine.
The huge support of European colleagues is highly valued to help our people with adaptation abroad. They met our employees at the borders, helped with the transfer, hosted temporarily at their homes, helped with food, basic clothes, and hygiene products, and search for permanent accommodation. L’Oréal Poland team, for instance, holds welcome meetings with Ukrainians to express solidarity and support mentally our employees being so far from their homes, it was highly appreciated and noted by our colleagues. Also, Ukrainian colleagues in Europe can visit the office of the subsidiary of the country they are based to be an integral part of the L’Oréal family.
Our Luxe department employees have launched the “Beauty for a Better Life” special course in Madrid, together with the L’Oréal Spain colleagues to support Ukrainian women in Spain to be integrated into a new socio-cultural environment. The course involves obtaining the new Profession of Beauty Specialist including assistance in employment in partnering department stores based on the skills obtained.
We keep in constant daily touch with employees based in Ukraine to support them. They can work flexibly, leave the meeting once the air alert begins and go to the bomb shelter. Considering possible blackouts in Ukraine, we provide the employees in Ukraine with portable electrical devices that guarantee the supply of electricity and continue considering additional actions based on the developing situation.
Now flexibility, adaptability, and mental health are more important than ever. In addition to this, the resilience, empathy, and teamwork that the global and local teams demonstrated, contribute to continuous deliveries to our clients who also faced huge difficulties while rethinking the whole supply chain. From May we continue to fill the empty shelves in open retail stores to cover the basic needs of Ukrainians, giving them access to hygiene products,” - says Country Manager of L’Oréal Ukraine, Alena Bannitsina.
In Ukraine from the first days of the war, we have launched a large-scale humanitarian program to help internally displaced people and vulnerable categories of the population with hygiene products. For 10 months of the war in Ukraine, more than 500 000 hygiene products including shampoos, face and body creams, shower gels, and deodorants, were delivered to more than 60 cities. Now the program is targeted to focus the aid to unoccupied territories and often shelled territories.
Thanks to the help of UNFPA Ukraine, 6200 women were provided with SRH kits containing pharmaceuticals and other medical supplies to cover the needs of the regional-level hospitals in Chernivtsi and Ivano-Frankivsk. These hospitals are addressing the needs of pregnant women and women who gave birth in those regions, as well as IDPs residing in those regions. Regional-level hospitals mostly deal with more complicated cases, related to pregnancies and delivery that require more professional and specialized support.
Together with SOS Children Villages, the furniture was contributed to 3 social centers for families with children to create proper living conditions. Also, 3,254 Ukrainians from 12 sites of the Kharkiv region in the recently de-occupied Brigadyrivka received food, hygiene, medical kits, and individual assistance due to donation support.
In 2023 we will continue our humanitarian aid program to care about our people in such a difficult historical time.
