Our site statistics tell us that nearly 48% of visitors are using a smartphone or a tablet to view the website.

We've improved the navigation menu to better cater for handheld devices. You should have a smoother experience now with no swiping or pinching required.

While we were at it, we gave the site colour scheme a bit of a makeover too. The website content is still very information-dense and wordy. But that's just how we roll.

If you have any usability concerns please advise

The ATO has approved Uplift's status as a DGR (Deductible Gift Recipient). Donations/gifts of $2.00 or more to the Uplift Project Ltd, ABN 12 603 272 877, are now tax deductible for Australian tax payers.

See:
https://www.ato.gov.au/Non-profit/Gifts-and-fundraising/Claiming-tax-deductions
http://www.abn.business.gov.au/SearchByAbn.aspx?SearchText=12%20603%20272%20877

P.S. Uplift's endorsement as a DGR is backdated to April 2015 when the application was submitted.

Global Friends is having postal problems. Please do not send bras until we sort this out.

Upcoming Fiji and PNG containers planned.

We need to put collections and bra drives on hold in Victoria until March 2016. Thanks to the generosity of Victorian women we have over 50,000 bras in storage. We can't take any more big collections until we raise the funds to move the current stock.

Small personal donations can still be made at our drop off points. Scheduled bra drives and collections currently under way will continue. But please do not start a big collection or drive because we won't have anywhere to store the bras!!

Please continue to donate the special items - maternity bras, new underpants, mastectomy/pocketed bras, breast forms,cloth nappies, E+ cup bras, wigs and turbans (for chemo-affected ladies). These are precious and generally in short supply, we can make room in our garages for these.

Over that last few months three shipping containers of bras, kids clothes, books and hospital sundries have been distrubuted in Malaita, Guadalcanal and Honiara.

Minnie and Fiona have edited the various reports into a single document Solomon_Islands_20141214.pdf

The report contains 33 pages of details and pictures.

Welcome to our new South Australia Coordinator Vania sa@upliftbras.org

Welcome to our new Fiji Distribution Coordinator Naomi fiji@upliftbras.org. Naomi has been coordinating Fiji distribution for some time, but now it's official.

My mother and crew are now in full swing with their distributions starting on Thursday 14/8. Distributions only on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Just a quick summary, they've done 5 distribution centres to about 9000 women already! Detailed story and pictures will be available once this rounds are done. Last Thursday they went to a village, Nabukadra in the Ra Province. The roads are only accessible by trucks, they had to distribute to ladies that walked an hour to two hours to get there with some arriving by horses. Didn't even realise that horses are still a means of transport in some parts of Fiji!

Uplift Project now has 'roving drop off points' in metro Melbourne. A+ Market is a roving Melbourne market of local designer and preloved 'plus size' fashion, jewellery and more.

Upcoming dates and locations:
Saturday 27 Sept Mechanics Institute,1N Plowman Place, Frankston 10am - 3pm
Sunday 26 October Knox Club, Corner Stud and Boronia Roads, Wantirna 11am - 4pm
Saturday 29 November Darebin NorthWest Uniting Church Hall, 399A Murray Road, Preston 10am - 3pm

More information:
Website: http://aplusmarkets.com/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/aplusmarkets

Juvie from GinPRA (Gingoog Poverty Relief Action) in the Philippines sent a great PowerPoint presentation showing bra distribution alongside school and hospital equipment. The Uplift Project in NSW and Rotary DIK (Donations In Kind) Burwood NSW have been working with GinPRA in Northern Mindanao for some years. The PowerPoint slides show recent distribution in the Gingoog mountain villages and distribution after typhoon Washi in 2011 and super typhoon Bopha in 2012.

Download the owerPoint presentation - Project Uplift - GinPRA.pptx (4.2 MiB)

Uplift Project Singapore coordinator Sue Siddik recently appeared on AsiaOne news.
Read article and view video at http://news.asiaone.com/news/diva/bra-lady-wants-your-unwanted-bras

Tony Wale sent a report about the bra distribution that took place last November at Langalanga Lagoon in the Malaita province.

Pictures in the Photo Gallery

Full Report (PDF)

In Victoria, at present depending on band and cup size, bras are going to Fiji (large cup and band), Tonga (large band), Solomon Islands (10-16 A-D) or Philippines and Cambodia (8-10 A-B).

If you are in NSW bras go to Philippines or Fiji, in Brisbane to Vanuatu, in NZ to a range of places, and in SA to Tennant Creek. In WA they go to women's refuges and prisons, and to PNG shortly.

Singapore bras are going to a number of agencies, and South Africa bras are going to farming women and a few to Botswana.

If we send a whole container it costs about 12 cents/bra to ship them. If we post, for example to a recent request from Botswana, it costs $70.00/10kg which is about 80 bras.

I've sent out a few hundred bras to Child's Dream (Thailand). On my charity trip to Cambodia in September with a couple of friends, we also brought with us a couple of hundred bras for Child's Dream (Siem Reap) and Emancipasia (Phnom Penh). Child's Dream help build schools for the very poor and remote areas in Thailand and Cambodia. Emancipasia helps to rebuild lives of children and young girls who were rescued from sex trafficking and child prostitution.

4,000 bras distributed in Fiji, see pictures in the Gallery.

I have been going for about a month now and am pleased to say that I have enough bras (and panties) to do my first hand out to some special ladies.

The charity that I am helping (Helping Angels) is very excited, the are organising a pretty venue so we can really have a special ladies day.

The need for panties in this community is also great, as the teenage girls cannot go to school when they menstruate (I know that you mention this on your website too), also there is a dire need for sanitary towels for these girls.

So, I also contacted a lady that makes washable sanitary towels and donates them. She goes to schools in rural South Africa and talks to the girls about becoming a woman and gives them a pack that contains 3 panties and 7 pads. These will last the girl the 5 years that she goes to high school, hopefully keeping her at school and not missing out on getting an education.

So she is going to see if she has enough funds to donate some packs to me and we are all going to partner up to give these ladies a pack that consists of a panty and bra and a bar of laundry soap (I'm working on this too), and to give the teenage girls a sanitary pack as well.

I must say I am very excited, hold thumbs for me please...

Carmen

Welcome to Carmen Boon, coordinator of our new branch in South Africa.

Welcome to Fiona, our new Queensland coordinator.
Thanks to Rebecca the outgoing Queensland coordinator.

News from Joyce Measures at Stronger Families, Tennant Creek.

We are receiving packages often and this has been very welcomed by community representatives.

We have had two separate bra fittings and community representatives being provided with well fitted bras and we could not thank your organization enough for this fantastic opportunity. We will be soon having another session and I will ensure that we take photos and provide you with copies of these.

Drop off to South Morang ONLY before Feb 28th.

The Rotary Club of Preston has kindly agreed to fund shipping of a container to Solomon Islands. This container will be over half full of books to continue Uplift Victoria's and Rotary's support of school libraries there, and the remainder material aid for tsunami victims.

Uplift's Solomons Distribution team have a network in place that can fairly quickly distribute aid , and had a few boxes of bras and clothing on the first boat out into the effected areas.

The greatest needs will be reusable water containers up to 20 litres. Even single person drink bottles are a great help.

We've been advised by the Solomon Islands National Director of Hygiene (who is part of the Uplift distribution team) that they will need dressing trays either disposable or steel, disinfectants solutions, hand gels, clothes, containers to store water etc. Towels, bed linen, blankets, bandages and wound dressings, are all very high demand also.

Any donations will have to be delivered to:

Clinic opening hours are Mon & Thurs 1-8, Tue, Wed, Fri, 9.30am -4.00pm. Items can safely be left on the front doorstep at other times.

Global Friends www.globalfriends.org.pk works with the poorest of people in Kashmir.

Often in such areas government is unable to pay teachers, and education falls apart. Among a range of projects, Global Friends support teachers to keep teaching. Receiving bras will help teachers understand that their work is valued by women across the world, and that alone can be powerful.

Bras (small to medium sizes) can be posted to:

Liz will be talking about Uplift in an interview with SYN Radio, 8:15 am, Mon 11 Feb. Tune into Melbourne 90.7FM, SYN Digital or stream syn.org.au

A reminder about the upcoming GO Festival.

The GO festival is a celebration of women of all ages. It's an opportunity to relax and explore what's new whilst enjoying a day off. Festival attendees are encouraged to bring along their unused bras to go into the Uplift Project collection container.

Girls Only (GO) Festival
Feb 16th & 17th 2013 Royal Exhibition Building, Carlton
Check out www.gofestival.com.au

Stephanie Anderson, based in S.A., is Uplift's first ever National Coordinator for Mastectomy Bras & Breast Forms/Prostheses.

This is an evolving role, but at present is expected to include sourcing donations of mastectomy and breast forms (also known as prostheses) across Australia, and possibly New Zealand, and the production of mastectomy bra and breast form fitting instructions. Stephanie will answer any questions about possible donations of these items.

Jacqueline de Gailliande, Executive Officer of Red Cross Vanuatu passed on a message from The Mamas of Nguna Island. They sell the donated bras to buy computer equipment for laptop, recently 5 mamas from this island benefited from computer training supported by GVT and a Peace Corps volunteer.

Tank yiu tumas! Anoa Ta Paroa!

Nguna Mamas Computer Group wantem tellem Vanuatu Red Cross mifala Tank Yiu tumas long donation blong yufala.

Donation long 230 moa bras long Nguna Mamas oli helpem mifala pem supplies mo equipment long mekem wan gudfala wok blong sponsor organization komuniti development projeks. Mamas bin selem bras mo pem paper long printer mo regulator mo mekem saef paoa suplae long laptop.

Ol Mamas appreciate long support mo donation blong yufala. Attached i photo blong Nguna Mamas Computer Group.