Kimbuta Rural Development Programme

In 2009 we were asked by ladies in Uganda if we could find any second hand but good quality bras to take out with us on our next trip: apparently second hand bras from the UK were considered far superior in quality to anything readily available in Uganda.

In no time at all we had donations of upwards of 1,000 and stuffed them – literally – into our luggage. the ladies we were able to give them to were overjoyed as you can see from the images below. Perhaps we don’t always appreciate the choices available to us here in the UK?

The women in the area of Okorom, near to Ngora in the Kumi District, were so grateful for the bras, they wrote a letter to say thank you and read it out to us.

Since that time we have collected literally thousands of bras and taken them with us when we have visited Uganda. In 2025, we ran into a problem. X-ray scanning of our luggage as we left the airport terminal led to two bags being taken for detailed examination. Both contained some bras and these were confiscated. Two members of our team were detained by Ugandan customs on the basis that it is now illegal to bring second-hand underwear into Uganda. They were required to make a formal statement explaining why we were bringing these items and a fine had to be paid before team members were allowed to leave. We have thought about the implications of this. Whilst we could take more in future and hope that we are successful in getting them through customs, we have decided that we cannot take the risk that KRDP might end up on some sort of blacklist that affects our ability to continue with everything else we do in Uganda. We have explained this to the ladies groups who used to receive bras from us. They were incensed and upset but agreed that our decision was correct. We would like to thank everyone in UK who has supported us in this venture since 2009, but we will no longer accept donations of bras.

Tags: 2009, bras, clothing, ngora, uganda, women