Bread & Butter Barcelona!

As many of you know, Rise Up International partners with Rise Up Clothing (a fashion line) to help raise money for our projects. When you purchase a tee-shirt, hoodie, or pair of jeans...a portion of the proceeds goes to help break the cycle of poverty all over the world. Recently, the clothing line provided the funding for twenty teens to receive scholarships to go to high school outside of the garbage dump (where they live) in Nicaragua.

They recently debuted their Spring collection in Barcelona, Spain at the Bread & Butter trade show.
You can see more photos at the Rise Up flickr page here.

To view the entire Spring collection- visit the Rise Up Clothing website here.

Bend Bulletin Article

Rising up
Bend couple makes it personal mission to aid disadvantaged children of Nicaragua
By Christopher Stollar / The Bulletin
Published: December 03. 2006 5:00AM PST

MANAGUA, Nicaragua - Jesse and Maria Roberts' van bounced across the cobblestone streets of Managua, passing donkeys, horses and signs for Coca-Cola.
The Bend couple drove this August into the outskirts of Nicaragua's capital until they reached La Chureca, the dump.
Here the air smells of rotting fruit and moldy beans as children claw through heaps of trash and mothers nurse babies from withered breasts. Families scour the dump each day in hopes of rice for their mouths or metal for their homes.
But the people of La Chureca dropped their work this August when the Bend couple rolled into their world in a big white van. As Jesse parked, a dark-eyed girl peered out from the shadows of her home. She burst into laughter and ran to hug the Robertses, whom she has known from previous visits, and to introduce them to her mother, Rosario Quintana.
Jesse spoke first.
"We want to help you find a life outside the dump," he said, looking at 11-year-old Josselin Carolina Rodrigues Quintana. "We want you to get an education."
A smile shot across Josselin's face as she dreamed of this chance to leave the landfill. Maybe she'd become a fashion designer and forget the darkness of her current life scouring for bottles, paper and aluminum among the village men.
"Many try to hit us," she said. "And if they don't try to hit us, they try to rape."
Her mother started to cry.
"My dream," Quintana said, "is for her to study and go on and not live this life."

Click to read the rest of the story