For the month of April, 2019, Soroptimist International of Bend (SI Bend) will be placing their collection Bra Boxes at participating retail businesses to help bring awareness to the fight against international human trafficking. These garments help create a pathway to a better life for a woman rescued from the sex slave trade in Africa and Latin America, specifically, Mozambique, El Salvador and Costa Rica. SI Bend partners with Free the Girls (FreeTheGirls.org), a nonprofit organization, to send the donated bras to these locations.
SI Bend’s outreach program Bras from Bend is a testament to the Soroptimist mission Best for Women. The Bras project is made of women in Central Oregon helping other women half way around the world. The simple act of a donation of a gently used (or new) bra will help a woman become an entrepreneur who sells these garments thus empowering her to create a better life for herself and family. Bras may seem an ordinary item for women in our country. To women of sub-Sahara Africa and in some countries of Latin America, they are a luxury item, which improve lives socially and economically.
Believing in acting globally, as well as locally, SI Bend also shares collected garments with women’s shelters in our own community.
The Annual Bras from Bend Boxes are at the following locations in Bend during April.
Bella Studio 2150 NE Studio Road, Bend
The Cutting Club, 1335 NW Galveston
Deschutes Children’s Foundation – East Bend Campus, 2125 NE Daggett Lane
The Little Hair Shoppe, 2669 NE Twin Knolls Drive, Bend
Prosthetics by Lynda, 345 NE Norton, Bend
QuiltWorks, 926 NE Greenwood, Bend
