The Side Eye: Charity Sends Used Underwear To Africa

The Side Eye: Charity Sends Used Underwear To Africa


Zimbabwe needs your used knickers to stop sexual abuse. On a visit to Zimbabwe, ex-pat Morag Roy was informed by a Catholic priest that women and girls in the villages needed to wear undergarments in order to note prestige and therefor ward off sexual abuse. Roy returned to Australia, and with the help of the New Zealand maternity lingerie line HOTmilk gathered donations of new and used undies to send to Zimbabwe. We're curious if this is the result of an informed analysis of sexual abuse in Zimbabwe or another opportunity for busy bodies to feel charitable. The yuck aspect of shipping off skid marks to Africa (the website calls it "pre-loved lingerie"), combined with the fact that folks in poor countries have already said they don't want your old crap warrants a side eye for this story (they would get a side eye for their logo alone, below). Also, didn't Zimbabwe recently ban the sale or donation of second-hand undergarments?

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