Soroptimist Intl. April efforts: ‘Bras from Bend,’ ‘Shadows of Hope’
Starting April 1, Soroptimist International of Bend will be placing their collection Bra Boxes around town at participating retail businesses to help bring awareness to the fight against international human trafficking.
These garments will help create a pathway to a better life for a woman rescued from the sex slave trade in Africa and Latin America. SI Bend partners with Free the Girls (www.FreeTheGirls.org), a non-profit organization, to send the collected 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 of Central Oregon. To women of sub-Sahara Africa and in some countries of Latin America, they are a luxury item, which improve lives socially and economically.
“Bras from Bend” runs annually only during the month of April. Bra Boxes are at the following locations in Bend. For more information, visit www.sibend.org.
Bella Studio 2150 Ne Studio Road
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
Prosthetics by Lynda, 345 NE Norton
QuiltWorks, 926 NE Greenwood
Snap Fitness, 19550 Amber Meadow Drive
Snap Fitness, 2753 NW Lolo
Therapeutic Associates, 2200 NE Neff, #220 (in The Center)
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Also during the month of April, Soroptimist International of Bend will unveil free-standing silhouettes representing not only women and girls, but men and boys caught in the shadows of Human Trafficking.
The silhouettes will be placed at various locations around Bend. Each silhouette will have free information for the public to take and learn more about human trafficking.
To launch the silhouette project, SI Bend partnered with Jesse Fishkin, a sophomore at Summit High School and his Boy Scout Troop 25.
Jesse was introduced to Human Trafficking in his health class at school. He felt the opportunity to create a project with the local Soroptimist service club to raise awareness could help him earn an Eagle Scout Badge. His project is titled “Shadows of Hope.”
Jesse and members of his Boy Scout Troop are building eight wooden silhouettes. Jesse’s task is to not only coordinate the making of the silhouettes, but to secure locations for display.
The faces of human trafficking include: child labor, sex trafficking, domestic servitude, forced labor, and bonded labor. Victims of human trafficking are found in private homes, on city streets, places of business, along highway rest stops and in places of commerce where the products we consume are collected or produced by bonded labor.
If you are a company, public building, retail or other type of business who would like to host a Soroptimist silhouette, please contact Soroptimist President Terri Swendsen at 503-519-5051 or Jesse Fishkin via email dfishkin@bendbroadband.com.
For more information on human trafficking, please go to www.sibend.org.
