"Do It In A Dress" Australian Charity

[Robyn Jodie]

This is old news (2017), and yeah, most people consider the dresses ugly, but that's not the point.  The charity works like this.  You get one of their dresses, get subscribers to your activity (skydiving, mountain climbing, or whatever) and then "do it in a dress" and remit the donations.  The charity was founded to fund the education of girls in Sierra Leone, where people will pay to educate boys, but think educating girls is a waste of money.  The founders of the charity claim that a girl there is more likely to be r*ped than to get an education.

Anyway, an Australian primary school went all out for the charity and was roundly criticized by a conservative member of parliament for having boys wear dresses.  His criticism went viral and in the backlash, donations poured in to the school, which wound up raising nearly $250,000 Australian dollars -- the biggest single contribution the charity has ever received, and about half the campaign's entire donations for 2017.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-29/bernardi-dress-backlash-generates-record-donations-for-charity/8999792

[Betty]

Yep. Some of the ugliest dresses I've ever seen. I guess they didn't really want any of the kids to actually enjoy wearing them.

What are those? WWII military surplus nurse's & orphanage dresses?

[Angela M...]

Those dresses Betty, are the good old school uniform dresses for kids in some schools and they are a bit old fashioned but still used in some schools I believe. It is supposed to stop the richer kids from showing off the latest fashions when others can barely afford food for their tables.

[Robyn Jodie]

Some schools -- presumably some in Sierra Leone which is the target of the charity -- do indeed still wear such dresses as their school uniform.

I thought it was hilarious, however, that the criticism of a prominent conservative politician for "gendermorphing" by putting boys in dresses nearly doubled the charity's contributions for the year.

[ace]

Even though it might be an "old" article, I can vouch that they are still the types of dresses worn by Aussie schoolies. These are the summer semester type.

Ace