Heifer International is a fantastic non-profit organization. The idea behind the foundation is to give impoverished people training along with 'starter' animals. These animals can provide eggs, milk, wool, meat and even honey and help these people lift themselves from poverty. And, in the end, because of their principle of 'passing on the gift', the recipients eventually become donors themselves, raising the standard of living in their entire community as they share the offspring of their original animals.
If you make a donation in someone's name, that person will receive a card describing the gift in detail and a family in need will receive the animals. Depending on how much you want to spend, you can either do an entire donation or a share of one. They even have some shares starting at $10.00. (Note- clicking on any of the pictures below will take you to the printable gift inserts, which provide more info for that particular gift.)
A couple of the many things they provide are…
-Flocks of chicks, ducks and geese. I think one of these would be perfect for a teacher to represent her flock of young minds. I mean really, how many World's Greatest Teacher mugs can one person have?
-The knitting basket includes 2 llamas and 2 sheep. A share of this would be a fantastic gift for your favorite knitter, maybe along with a few skeins of some fair trade yarn to bring the whole thing full circle.
-You could even give a bunch of tree seedlings (for controlling erosion) to all of your coworkers that can't see the forest for the trees. All for only $10 each. And I'm sure you can find a more inspirational quote to go along with them. Myself, I like this one found here...
The great French Marshall Lyautey once asked his gardener to plant a tree. The gardener objected that the tree was slow growing and would not reach maturity for 100 years. The Marshall replied, 'In that case, there is no time to lose; plant it this afternoon!' -- John F. Kennedy
If you decide you want to give a bunch of different donations, you can go to this link here to do them all at once.
And if you would like these as gifts for yourself, you can always give a hint to your loved ones by emailing a link to this post. ;)
It's fairly simple to create a registry for weddings, baby showers, anniversaries, birthdays, graduations and holidays. This little guy set up one for his birthday.
Doesn't that make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside?
I totally agree! In fact I purchased a *goat* over a month ago in hopes of helping my kids see that we have so much to be thankful for, that we should share with others less fortunate.
ReplyDelete~Wendy
Awesome, awesome, awesome.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful gift idea. I'm giving a knitter I know some organic locally grown wool but I wish I would have done this instead. I'll have to look into it for the remaining few on my list. :)
ReplyDeleteI love this whole gift giving idea. A Soul Sister just gave a gift of bees in honour of our soul coaching accreditation group.
ReplyDelete