Llew O'Brien (Wide Bay, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Uniforms 4 Kids is a charity which repurposes emergency services uniforms and other uniforms into bright and beautiful clothes for kids. As their volunteers in Cooroy know, too many kids go without. Uniforms 4 Kids volunteers have stitched and sewed old uniforms into 37,000 articles of children's clothing. For some children, Uniforms 4 Kids clothes are their only clothes, such as the little girl in the domestic violence shelter whose mother had no time to pack, so they fled with only the clothes on their backs; the children who lost everything in the Tongan earthquake; or the children who were born with nothing in a Port Moresby orphanage. For others, such as the rural boy playing soccer in rags, it's the only new set of clothes that they've ever had.

These clothes are handmade, mostly by Australian grandmothers, who make them with the same love they made their own children's and grandchildren's clothes with, upcycling old police uniforms and handcrafting them into unique, quality designs. Uniforms 4 Kids volunteers love what they do and the community that they have found in rooms of sewing machines, scrap fabric and thread. At Uniforms 4 Kids, a police officer isn't just donating an old shirt and a grandmother isn't just sewing shorts. Together, they are giving the gift of self-esteem, dignity, warmth and self-worth to a child who needs it most.

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