• Women appreciate the common dignity of a bra for business or social occasions.
• Bras control breast swing when women bend to garden or cook at ground level. In humid climates rashes, fungal infections and abscesses occur between the breast and the chest wall. Bras help by allowing air circulation.
• Nursing mums everywhere leak, and bras allow the dignity of a dry shirt, and the comfort of support. A thrush rash on a mother's skin may spread to her baby's mouth, and then back into the breast itself.
• A mastectomy bra offers privacy about the problem.

The list goes on and if you are a women, you will definitely know that a bra gives you confidence and comfort!

"In the Solomon Islands it is quite difficult to access a comfortable bra. Some of the second hand shops sell bras but mostly women have to buy their bras from the Chinese Trade Stores. These bras have some problems; they come in smaller sizes, are made of nylon and perish quickly in tropical conditions. You cannot buy maternity bras or mastectomy bras in country. For the women to be given free bras is an unbelievable experience for all of them. Women feel a tremendous obligation to meet the needs of their families, and so for any woman in the village to spend money buying a bra for herself can almost be seen as an unforgivable sin. The priority for women's spending is food and education needs of children."
— Rose Wale, 2012, Report of Bra Distribution, Solomon Islands.

Since 2005 Uplift has sent over two million bras wherever women have requested them. Our work has been assisted by the involvement of a wide range of business and community groups. Uplift tries to ensure that bras get to the women who need them without compromising their dignity. We have sent bras to Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Cook Islands, Tonga, Solomon Islands, Philippines, Bali, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Botswana, Uganda and Pakistan, the outback of Australia and to projects and schools in need in New Zealand.

The original Uplift Bra Project was initiated in 2004 in Australia by Liz Baker.  Unfortunately the Australian chapter closed in 2020 but we are continuing on Liz's good work in New Zealand.

Pauline Watson has been coordinating Uplift's bra recycling in New Zealand since 2012 and has appeared on TV1 Good Sorts, been interviewed countless times on radio, featured in magazines and newspapers, and has visited Fiji, Tonga and Vanuatu several times to deliver and fit bras to ladies in need.

Pauline retired at the end of 2021 and Juliet Campbell agreed to take over the reins.