Recent News

A superb "Recycle your bra" display at Murray Fry Amcal Pharmacy, Camperdown, Victoria May 2010 Click picture for larger view See more pictures in the Gallery

We've been in touch with groups in other parts of the world that re-distribute pre-loved bras
UK  www.breasttalk.co.uk/bra-appeal 
US  www.brarecycling.com 

A truckload of bras is shipped off to Tonga by NSW branch Coordinator Kate Mathieson and Rotarian Bruce Macarthur. Click picture for larger view More pictures in the Gallery

From Fiji - Suzanne's visit.

I asked/told a girl at the hotel about the bras and she pointed me towards a guy working there Ben and said that his wife had something or other to do with the village. I still don't know what role they had there but I went back to their place one afternoon and met all the family and half the neighbours. And as is tradition in Fiji, we sat out the back and drank kava. A few girls came around while I was there and they were all pretty excited and had a lot of fun with the bras. I showed them the website so they didn't think I was just a crazy person who travels the world with bras as an excuse to go to people's houses! Ben and his family are the ones in the village who sell ground up kava in little bags, so we went across to the market and bought kava roots and he had them ground up for me to take home. A few days later at the hotel he came up to say how grateful and happy all the people were in the village with the donation, and to say thank you.

From World Harvest Church, Fiji:

A total of 217 cartons of brand new bras (clearly labelled and marked), were loaded onto the transport provided by Bayly Trust.

Tomorrow two matrons from the Colonial War Memorial Hospital will be here to receive the cartons of mastectomy and maternity bras.

All workman's boots have been presented to Volunteer Construction Workers involved in the construction of a new Primary and Secondary School blocks for Newtown School.

We have commenced opening all cartons for the purpose of Global Compassion Distribution throughout Fiji.

May we express to you our HEARTFELT GRATITUDE and DEEP APPRECIATION for your very kind gesture towards the donation of a 40-foot container filled with women's bras, assorted lingerie and shoes. This is indeed a great blessing to women from all walks of life throughout the nation of Fiji.

From the Indo-Fijian community:

We write to confirm that we (Bethany Assembly of God, 391 Grantham Road, Suva) have taken delivery of l00 boxes of bras as a donation yesterday 19 Jan.20l0 from Bayly Trust, Suva. All these will be distributed by the women's group of our church to women who were victims of the recent floods, women living in HART Homes (poor relief homes) and those living in squatting areas. Once each of these distributions is complete, we will be emailing you the photographs.

Once again we want to say thank you very much indeed to you and your management for your hard work, generosity and the untiring contributions to the communities of the world needing assistance. Please convey our appreciation to all those involved in a work well done and deserving a BIG vinaka vakalevu. God bless you indeed.

For the Cook Islands

Since the December shipment another 3,000 second hand bras have arrived at Uplift Vic. Most of these should go to the Cook Islands shortly.

From Tonga

Some bras recently went into Tonga from Western Australia. We received the message below:

Hi Maxine and Collin,

We had a bra bazzar when I got home the women helped to sorted them out into sizes and colours. I also allowed the six women including me to take 2 bras each for them. The 4 families that just arrived from tonga and nz have teenage girls also took 2 bras each. They think you're the best ever person to think of them, I told them that are purposely meant for Tonga to the South Island that were affected by the tsunami, and one of them took her top off and showed me her bra and she said, "Well look at me and what I wear, do you think this (pointing to her bra) kind of bra should be worn by someone that live in Australia? My father can't buy one for me, I have to use my mum's bra." I felt so sorry for her and her other sisters. So they were over the moon with the 2 bras each that they took. They will be send on air cargo unaccompanied laggage 2 or 3 days before the 25/1. I will send you the copy of my letter so if we can keep this going because it's another way of bringing breast cancer awareness to schools, plus educating the communities on checking and treating anything at the possible earliest time.

A BIG "THANK YOU" from Opie and me plus the women of Beth Shalom and thank you for thinking of us.

With kind regards and God bless you both.

Kalo.

A 40" container of bras was shipped to Fiji, courtesy of our ever-reliable Intimo. It contained 35,000 Intimo bras and 21,000 second hand bras. The bras will be distributed by World Harvest Church & Bayley Welfare, with nursing bras going to hospitals and mastectomy bras going to the Cancer Society. This shipment cleared the Melbourne stockpile - at least for a week or so...

HUGE thanks to Swires who shipped our PNG container as a donation. Thanks to Red Cross PNG for receiving the container and sharing it with YWCA. Thanks to the many volunteers who sorted, boxed and stacked bras, and packed the container, and to the numerous people who provided storage on their own properties for the bras awaiting dispatch.

The ladies of the Fijian Church in Melbourne joined Uplift in preparing Intimo stock for shipment to Fiji. It is really great to have Fijian faces present, and we look forward to working together in future.

Thanks to Intimo, Uplift has shipped its first full container of bras! 65,000 bras, 17,000 of which are Intimo bras, are en route to PNG. The stockpile is nearly clear.

Update from Red Cross Madang PNG

Hi Ladies,

Just a wee note to up date you on the bras that were sent to Madang Red Cross via the DIK Rotary container.

It has been a slow distribution but think it is better to wait and get the goods to where they should be. Transport to the highlands regions of the Madang province doesn't happen very often.

Bras have been sent to the upper Ramu area through Soroptimists who have a very small branch at the Ramu sugar settlement. Though small they are getting out into the rural areas with appropriate health and childcare programs. They have promised me photos but I am not holding my breath.

The Country Women's Association in Madang has a very active village birth attendants program. They supervise the distribution of hundreds of birthing kits to their attendants and they are distributing the bras with them.

We have a large settlement of displaced people from Manam Island up our North Coast. Some of the women call on me on a regular basis and they usually leave with a supply of bras.

They are all but gone.

Thank you,
Best wishes.
Maureen Hill.
President Red Cross Madang Branch.

Thank you to Cosmopolitan Bar Wantirna Rd, Wantirna Vic., who generously hosted a recent Uplift event. The food was great, and may we recommend their "Bra"ileys Jaffa:
    30ml Baileys,
    15ml Butterscotch Schnapps,
    15ml Cointreau/triple sec,
    30ml milk
    shake over ice.

A Best Bra Stories competition was run on the night. Some of the favourites are below:

"Sitting in a business meeting, being the only female, looking down & realising one underwire had worked its way up and was sticking out like a claw from the top of my shirt."

As a very shy 12 year old I was also very flat. When I finally discarded a "training bra" I was horrified to walk past my father's veggie patch (clearly visible from the street) to find he had used it to tie up his tomatoes.

I woke up one morning while on a cruise ship only to be unable to locate any of my bras and undies. All of them were tied to the mast at the bow of the ship flying freely next to the American flag. What started as a prank finished with 3 people in trouble for what the Americans declared defacing their flag.

Middle daughter always teasing her brother. This day she took it too far by breaking his finger. She woke up the next day to find all her bras and pants hanging from on the street signs of Rowville.

"Hot day, decided to put bra in the freezer. In the middle of the day the bra thaws and who has a wet shirt?"

Feedback from Tanna Island Vanuatu to Rotarian Virginia Turner.

Dear Virgina,

Thank you! Thank you ! Thank you! I am so please to hear from you again. I have open up the boxes for the bras especially, I do not sell them, but communities has come to collect for themselves.

Women around Government station and other villages has come for their taste and they like it very much. I have given out over 100 bras already and am still giving out.

News from PNG re 3,000 bra recently received by YWCA.

"We have them here in the office. It is timely as we have our local associations from five different provinces here for a training session. They are from Lae, Goroka, Simbu, Tabubil and Ramu amd we are packing the bras for them to take to their provinces and distribute to the women there".

"I have a friend who is working at the Oro Hospital and we gave her some to take yesterday to distribute to the women who travel in from outlying areas (the patients and their carers.) I will send you a report and some pictures as I gather information".

Victoria. Intimo have donated a truckload (literally) of clothing, and the shipping to get it ot Fiji. One saturday soon, Uplift volunteers will be removing plastic packaging before dispatch. More volunteers welcome, email

Maxine in WA has bras going to Zimbabwe: "The great need in the villages is for underclothes for the women and found it hard to believe that I could offer them 25,000 ready to roll - so to speak. We haven't talked costs yet, but I guess that we should put in some."

Kate in NSW:
Today we packed 45 boxes of bras - that's approx 5000, only another 15000 to go. 10 people attanded, one of the guys was 84yrs old. 6 from rotary, another 4 from drop off points through out Sydney.

Reporting from Tasmanian collection, Lew advises that they have 2500 sorted and packed with a few hundred in Hobart to be sorted. All this will be sent in the Tas. Container early April. Anticipate May arrival. We are also sending flood relief clothing etc. to Fiji

NSW coordinator Kate is having a sorting day on the 21st March from 9am-4pm. All welcome. Contact Kate at

A joke sent by our PNG contingent

An American decided to write a book about famous churches around the world. He bought a plane ticket and took a trip to Orlando , thinking that he would start by working his way across the USA from South to North.

On his first day he was inside a church taking photographs when he noticed a golden telephone mounted on the wall with a sign that read '$10,000 per call'.

The American, being intrigued, asked a priest who was strolling by what the telephone was used for. The priest replied that it was a direct line to heaven and that for $10,000 you could talk to God.

The American thanked the priest and went along his way.

Next stop was in Atlanta. There, at a very large cathedral, he saw the same looking golden telephone with the same sign under it. He wondered if this was the same kind of telephone he saw in Orlando and he asked a nearby nun what its purpose was.

She told him that it was a direct line to heaven and that for $10,000 he could talk to God. 'O.K., thank you,' said the American.

He then travelled all across America , Africa, England , Japan , New Zealand. In every church he saw the same looking golden telephone with the same 'US$10,000 per call' sign under it...

The American decided to travel to Papua New Guinea to see if fuzzy wuzzys had the same phone.

He arrived in POM city and again, in the first church he entered, there was the same looking golden telephone, but this time the sign under it read '40t per call.'

The American was surprised so he asked the priest about the sign. 'Father, I've travelled all over the world and I've seen this same golden telephone in many churches. I'm told that it is a direct line to Heaven, but in all of them the price was US$10,000 per call. Why is it so cheap here?'

The priest smiled and answered, 'You're in PNG now, son - it's a local call!

With the assistance of Design Central (our webhosting provider) we can now accept Visa and Mastercard donations toward the cost of shipping. Donated funds are used by the Rotary Club of Geelong "Donations in Kind" program to assist with shipping costs.  Click here to make a donation  (This link opens the Donations page at Design Central in a new window) 

The New Zealand branch of Uplift sent 8,000 bras to Vanuatu, a sensational result, congratuations Rachel.

Liz and Lorraine featured on Richard Aedy's ABC Life Matters program today. The mp3 podcast is available for listening or download from the  ABC Radio National website 

Uplift supplied 4,000 bras to fire relief bases in Victoria.

Read Lorraine's and Linda's  Papua New Guinea YWCA 2008 report 

Rotary Geelong DIK have shipped 8,000 bras, which should be in Fiji on 15th December, in time to make a less sweaty summer for a few thousand women!

Thank you to the folks from the USA who have posted bras direct to Fiji. The Fijian Women's Society have them in hand. Bras have been distributed to all the schools up the Sigatoka river.

The October 2008 Tasmanian shipment to Fiji has been distributed as follows.

• 20 boxes were delivered to Soqosoqo Vakamarama in Suva
• 13 boxes went to Sala Koroi, a long time distributer for Uplift. Sala said bras would be distributed in villages with the help of some of the mothers at her school. She will report back to Rebecca when she finished.

Click picture for larger view More pictures in the Gallery

A Koroipita "Bra Day" was held by Rebecca Beisler (an AVI volunteer) ably helped by Ana (house number 34) and another willing helper and AVI volunteer, Connie. Rebecca reports it was a very successful day with 103 very happy women taking home bras (see photo). Rebecca will probably hold another "Bra" day to ensure those women who weren't able to come the first day will be assured of getting bras. Any balance will be distributed amongst three or four other villages where Rebecca is aware of a need.

Maxine Jones, the retiring S.A. Co-ordinator thanks the Adelaide team for a magnificent effort at the Final Big Bra Sort. The team Aileen, Sissy, Wendy, Ursula, Jo, Joanne, Paula, Marjorie and lone male Graham sorted 10,639 bras in a single morning. That's 79 cartons making up 5 pallets. The total weight was a hefty 828 kilograms.
View the photos in the Gallery

Size 12-18:	2,840	Size 10-12:	168	Size 8-10:	77	Size 20 plus:	418
Sports:	301	Maternity:	115	Various:	6,720	Total:	10,639

Plus 1 carton of spare parts and bras needing repairs - not counted.

Our stockpile is full! Thank you all. Further collections will be accepted from mid 2009.
Small donations can still sent to the listed addresses but our garages are overflowing...

In October, Tasmania alone sent 5,000 bras to Fiji- a massive effort.
2,000 went from Melbourne to PNG, and a further 1,700 to Fiji.
Bras are wanted in Rwanda. Our fledgeling UK collection may go there.
Red Cross in Cook Islands have asked for bras, we just need to get them there...

Tasmania news:
Total bras packed now totals 3500 after Lew and Jan sorted and packed 850 odd on Saturday - Lew delivering to Hobart to container this week - expect Muriel in Hobart will also have some more to pack and deliver to container (not sure how many yet).
View snippet from Rotary District 9830 Newsletter

Tasmania news:
Bras are flowing in. The donations have come from Zonta, lingerie businesses, Rotary partners, Inner Wheel groups, St Vincent de Paul, ladies hairdressers and the general public all over the State. It is looking like the Rotarians will be sending their container to Fiji mid September and it is anticipated it should arrive around about the end of the first week in October.

Queensland news:
Kristy continues to have enquiries from Rotary clubs around the state wanting to help, along with 2 Intimo consultants and an Undercover Wear consultant wanting to start collecting at lingerie parties. Transport from Queensland to Vanuatu, PNG or Fiji is still needed.

South Australia news:
The Big Bra Sort - sorted and boxed 11,000 bras, which are now making their way to Melbourne en route to Fiji and PNG.
View the photos in the Gallery

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