holiday gifts of great weight that won’t fill up your backpack
My holiday gift list this year poses quite a challenge.
It includes:
-travelers constantly on the move and living out of their backpacks
-urban friends who live in studio apartments the size of a toll booth
-green thinkers who are painfully aware that gift giving creates about a 25% increase in waste this time of year
-older relatives with more traditional lifestyles whom I’d like to gift in a way we can both feel good about
Does this sound familiar to you?
Take heart – there are some great options for those who like to give gifts with a purpose that won’t take up valuable space in your suitcase.
Kiva Micro-Lending Gift Certificates
www.kiva.org
Perhaps you’ve heard about Kiva, since it’s recently been on the lips of high-profile individuals such as Oprah Winfrey and Bill Clinton. Kiva provides loans to entrepreneurs in the developing world with the intent to help them empower themselves to rise above poverty. The gift certificate recipient goes on to Kiva’s website and chooses who they’d like to lend to by reading the profiles of people such as Philomena Kesse, a widow in Nigeria who needs funds to help develop her own grocery store. Once the loan is made they can chart the entrepreneur’s progress through emailed updates. Most loans are re-paid within a matter of months, at which point invesetors have the to withdraw the funds or to reinvest with a new individual.
Heifer International – The Gift of Livestock
www.heifer.org
Traveling through rural areas of developing countries always brings about two feelings in me: one, that I encounter some of the most peaceful, happy people I’ve ever encountered and two, that these are the people who know who to do the most with the least. Heifer International focuses on animal husbandry as a means of sustenance and sustainability for poor families around the world. For example, with $120 you can buy a sheep for a family whose pasture land is unsuitable for grazing other animals. From that sheep they’ll get valuable wool to make clothes for themselves or to sell, milk to drink, and even rich manure to use as fertilizer. Heifer International also offers skills training to community members and pays it forward through their “passing on the gift” project, where offspring of donated animals are passed on to other community members in need.
Agros: Worms, Wash Basins and More
www.agros.org
It’s hard for me not to love Agros, both because of the sweeping scope of their projects and the fact that they are based in Seattle like me. Peruse Agros’ Gift Catalog on their website and you’ll be presented with an array of options to help lift Latin American families out of poverty. Through Agros you can help a farmer buy land, contribute seeds or trees, purchase livestock, fund water and irrigation systems, offer funds for health benefits and provide loans for women’s small businesses. Like the aforementioned sites, Agros encourages you to give a gift in honor of someone you love and create another change agent in the process.
