Unwanted bras collected in Oswestry will help charity and families in Africa

Oswestry Cambrian Rotary Club has joined forces with Morrisons and Sainsbury's stores in the town, and Stan's Superstore in St Martins, to install Against Breast Cancer Bra Banks.

Mike Lade from the club said: "When you make a deposit of a bra in one of our Bra Banks, your ill-fitting or unloved bras will be whisked away to start a new life on the other side of the world. Here they are used to support small businesses for African women to support their families by selling the bras in the markets.

"Bras are impossibly expensive to make and buy in places like Africa. One of the unexpected gains of the initiative, now that these bras are affordable in town markets, more women are now wearing bras and sexual assault has gone down!

"Many are resalable as they are while others are taken apart by the African women and remade in cottage industries. The ones that are not reusable in any way are broken down and recycled as cotton waste and metal. Everyone is a winner."

The club said it did not matter what condition the bra is in as long as it was laundered.

"This initiative also keeps these valuable textiles out of land fill and fulfils part of our environmental and international pledges."

The charity, Against Breast Cancer teamed up with a UK recycling company who help small businesses in Africa for the bra bank initiative. The recycling company will donate £700 to cancer research for every tonne of bras collected, about 9,000 bras.

Oswestry Cambrian Rotary welcomes individuals and couples of 18+ from the local community.

It meets at The Wynnstay Hotel, Church Street, Oswestry on Thursday evenings. Alternatively, people can join the meeting from wherever they are via a Zoom connection.