As part of its sponsorship action for visually-impaired people, the Orange Foundation is supporting the association Retina France as it organises the third edition of the cycling event "En tandem pour la vue" (In Tandem for Sight).
From 7 to 16 June 2008, this sporting event will draw together 25 tandems, ridden by a pilot and a visually-impaired teammate. Their ten-leg journey will take them over a total of 1 100km from Angers to Clermont-Ferrand.
The aim of the event is to raise public awareness and promote sport as a way for visually-impaired people to join in and become involved.

Retina France
Retina France was founded in 1984 with the aim of financing medical research in ophthalmology and providing support for patients, and especially children and teenagers.  In 1995, it strengthened its commitment by setting up its own research centre, the CERTO (centre for therapeutic study and research in ophthalmology), driven by researchers' desire to find the causes of retinal diseases, understand the mechanisms of such diseases and discover the therapies that will make it possible to overcome them.

The Orange Foundation's action for the visually-impaired
The Foundation focuses its support on projects to improve quality of life for partially-sighted or totally blind people, by facilitating their access to education, information and culture and by helping them become more independent.
For instance, it has joined forces with Association Valentin Haüy and GI2A (a group formed by blind or amblyopic intellectuals) to promote the Daisy system, which makes books available in digital audio format. The Foundation also installs audio-description systems in opera houses (as in Bordeaux), cinemas and theatres. The Foundation is also helping to make cultural sites and exhibitions more accessible, with a new Tactile Gallery in the Louvre, and specially-adapted itineraries and tools at the BnF national library, for example.

The Orange Foundation
Since its creation in 1987, the Orange Foundation has been conducting a major programme of corporate philanthropy which is the continuation of its company mission:  giving everyone the means to communicate, fighting against sensory and social isolation as well as promoting cultural fulfilment. The Orange Foundation is involved in three fields:
    health and disability to create links by helping autistic persons, and seeking to improve the autonomy and quality of life of persons suffering from visual or auditory impairments.
    education to build links by contributing to the fight against illiteracy and by encouraging the education of girls in developing countries.
    culture for developing links by supporting the collective practice of vocal music.