Bottletops origins date back to 2001 when Cameron Saul worked as a teacher for nine months in Uganda with Students Partnership Worldwide (SPW). While tackling sensitive issues such as HIV/AIDS, teenage pregnancy and gender equality in the classroom, he realised that young people are hungry to learn the facts and understand how to make informed choices when provided with the right opportunity to access the information.
Cameron discovered a wire frame hand bag made from local bottle tops in Uganda and developed the bag with his father, Roger and the design team from UK fashion house Mulberry. Together they devised 'The Mulberry Bottletop Campaign'. The campaign was a huge success and the Bottletop bag quickly became the best selling bag of the season, generating both local employment and vital funds for grass roots education projects in Africa. Bottletop was born.
A Bottletop album series was then established with 'Sound Affects: Africa', comprising rare afrobeat remixed by leading DJs and producers. At this point, the team began exploring the soundscape of Brazil and potential education programs to support there. The second volume, 'Sound Affects: Brazil' followed shortly after.
The Ring Pull Project began in 2007 with a collaboration between Bottletop's Oliver Wayman and Luciano Dos Santos from Brazil. Having seen the hopelessness and lack of opportunities for residents in Luciano's own favela community in the outskirts of Salvador, they devised a training program teaching residents how to make the products which the charity would in turn buy from them. This soon became a very simple but effective formula to help people in the community to work their way out of poverty. So far the project has made and sold over 3000 products through a partnership with the clothing brand Fenchurch.
Cameron and Oliver continue to create a unique organisation which both alleviates poverty and supports education projects which have a positive impact on the health and well-being of young people world-wide.