Please contact your state coordinator to arrange dropping off your collection.
Uplift! Poster blank.pdf
To download this PDF file, right-click the link then select Save Link As... or Save Target As...
If you are considering volunteering to be a bra drop off point, we'd be grateful to have your help. Please note that this project has no money for transport, so please e-mail your state coordinator about transport possibilities prior to collecting.
For a business, generally a collection box/laundry basket is placed somewhere in the public area of your business so people dropping bras off do not have to take up your staff's time. A flyer about the project can be attached to the basket, or nearby.
For a private address people will be asked to leave bags of bras on the front doorstep on the understanding that you will know what to do with them. A flyer about the project can be attached to your meter box to let people know they've found the right place.
Bras are often delivered in plastic bags. Please leave them in the bags as this assists sorting. Often a bag will contain all the same size.
Once you've got enough that you want them removed, please contact you state coordinator to arrange transport.
|
|
Download the Uplift! poster, and add your contact and drop off details in the space provided. Please contact your state coordinator to arrange dropping off your collection. Uplift! Poster blank.pdf To download this PDF file, right-click the link then select Save Link As... or Save Target As... |
At present we need:
Aid programs and DIK projects to take bras to the countries they serve. Even if it is just 5-10 boxes in your container. PNG and Cook Islands have asked us for bras.
Transport assistance to move bras from regional areas to capitals, and in some cases from capitals to Melbourne, where we have regular transport into Fiji.
Press release material is available from the national coordinator.
Publicity rarely goes wrong, but one conversation with a Consul is enough in a lifetime, so may we ask:
If lifting material from our website:
Please do not reproduce the press articles/photos from our website without copyright permission from the authors. Someone copied The Age's photo onto her blog, and also lifted pictures from our site without checking with us.
In indigenous Fijian culture it is not acceptable to view pictures of a person who has passed away. Images will be removed from our site as necessary, we have lost one lady already.
Text read throughs.
Before anything goes to press, the national coordinator, or the relevant state coordinator if appropriate, should have a "read through", where the journalist reads the text to us, and we can request changes. This is standard journalistic practice, not an onerous request.
We will scan for inadvertent misrepresentation of:
National/large group promotion notification.
If planning any large or national promotion, please let us know. Such promotions can create a big workload for our volunteer coordinators, most of whom have full time jobs too, and if 2 or 3 hit simultaneously we can get a bit snowed under.
Photos are wonderful to thank donors and to show we do what we say we do. Consent is required if photos are to be used in print/TV/internet applications. A 1 megabyte file is the minimum for print media, a bigger file allows cropping.
In donor countries:
Photos of sorting and packing events are good website and media fodder.
In recipient countries:
Modesty standards in the Pacific are more stringent than in Australia. Please no photos of women in underwear. As a photo rule of thumb, if you wouldn't appear in it on the internet, don't take it.
Suggested suitable photos include:
Donors usually do before donating, and recipients do before wearing. Once the numbers build up, and they will, the water and time involved are prohibitive.
Categories may change over the years according to where we are sending to.
Nursing bras - these should always be kept separate as they rare, and needed.
size 20, 22, 24 etc - again rare, and it is best if we don't send them where they are not needed.
Mixed sizes 8-18 good condition
Mastectomy bras - have a pocket lining the entire cup which will hold the prosthesis. Rare, but needed.
Bathers - these go to Fijian coastal women who stand in the water and fish, or who dive for octopus or beche de mere.
Underpants
socks/bodysuits etc. We always get them!
Strapless bras and those needing repair are low priority. The Fijian Women's Society et al may chose to accept them. They can be repaired, used them for shoulder straps for the strapless, and to make strap extenders.
Set out a line of cardboard boxes, labelled with the categories.
Once bras stretch a bit the effective size warps a little.
May we suggest you find a size 20 with a readable tag, and fold it in half at centre front, and lay it out on its "side". Just use it is a rough measuring device, if any bra is that size or bigger, toss it in a 20+ box.
The fastest way to sort is by underwire - if a bra doesn't have one, check for nursing bra clips. If it does, after sorting a few you'll get a sense of the size of a 16 underwire versus a 20, cutting down the number of bras to be "measured".
It is tempting to toss in other personal items for women, like perfume or jewellery etc. but these may break, and if not declared on a packing label may cause trouble with Customs.
Please use no packaging materials that are not bio-degradable. We are stuck with packing tape, sadly. There is no rubbish disposal system in many places. For ease of handling, please keep box sizes to apple/pear box size, which hold about 80 bras each. Pharmacies have useful size boxes to get rid of too.
Rotary will have to label every box for identification by customs officers in the country receiving. The Rotary label is specific to the Rotary District running the project you are contributing to, and sometimes we have attached these.
We need to label each box so Rotary know what's in it, Half an A4 will do, big writing, number of bras, type, (Nursing/sports/mixed sizes good condition etc) and second hand or new. A few new ones in a box of second hand is generally not a problem.
Please stick labels on the ends of boxes, so they can be read in warehouse /storage situations. As boxes rub together in transit, packing tape around all 4 sides of the label is the only way to avoid tearing/label loss.
