For $50 or less you can help to change someone’s life. These organizations, all launched by women who each took one step into Africa that led to leaving a lasting footprint, can help:
$50: Enough yarn for eight women in a crafts co-op to knit 21 sweaters (Rwanda Knits).
“The terrorist attack on 9/11 was the catalyst for me to take positive action,” says Cari Clement, 51, a former co-owner of a knitting-machine manufacturer in Montpelier, Vermont. In 2002, Clement worked with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees to donate 60 knitting machines to women living in a Rwandan refugee camp. She trained 50 women how to knit, and in turn they trained another 400 knitters. Today more than 1500 women in 17 organizations in Rwanda have learned to make scarves and sweaters as well as market them in Rwanda and the US. During the past year, one group of 30 women alone earned $3,000.
$32: Counseling for a pregnant woman with HIV/AIDS throughout her pregnancy, giving her the tools to keep herself and her baby alive and healthy (Mothers2Mothers).
When Robin Smalley’s best friend Karen died in 2004, her world fell apart. Karen’s brother invited her to Cape Town where was launching an inspiring peer education program for pregnant women living with HIV. “I lost my heart to these women with no reason to have joy or hope, and yet they met the challenges of their lives with both,” says Smalley, 51, who now divides her time between Los Angeles and South Africa. In 2004, Smalley co-founded Mothers2Mothers, which now employs approximately 600 HIV mothers to mentor more than 40,000 mothers per month at 153 sites in South Africa and Lesotho.
$20: One goat to help support and feed a family (CHABHA).
Susanna Grannis went to Namibia in 1996 as Fulbright scholar professor, and eight years later she was still thinking about how to help children orphaned by AIDS. “I was worried not just about their physical well-being, but about what it would be like to lose your family history,” says Grannis, 70, who started CHABHA in 2003, a nonprofit to support community-based organizations that keep families together. Today, CHABHA funds four organizations in Rwanda and one in South Africa, providing money for education, health cards, emergency food, home visits, life skills workshop, and leadership training.
$6: Netting for a child to sleep under, protected from malaria-infested mosquitoes (Children of Grace).
In 2001, Mary Ann McCoy, a retired nurse in Danville, California, was inspired by a magazine article about the millions of orphaned children in Uganda. “I donated $25 per month to keep a girl in school, then I got my friends and family involved and before I knew it we were sponsoring 50 children,” recalls McCoy, 62, who went to Uganda eighteen months later to meet these children. Upon her return home, McCoy decided to help even more children and founded Children of Grace. The organization aids about 550 primary school students in Uganda, providing them with healthcare, food, tuition, computer labs, latrines, libraries ⎯ whatever they need to unlock their potential. McCoy has raised more than one million dollars since 2001.
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for promoting these great charities. I’ve always been a fan of the goat project, because it makes a permanent difference. It’s not a Band aid. It’s a solution.
This is a wonderful post with so many good ideas. The problem is that this year there are so many needy folks right here in my own community. I think we need even deeper pockets and parents should set an example by sharing these projects with children. There’s a charity to save circus elephants, which kids can become a part of. I wonder if CHABHA has something similar set up?
These are really great causes. I need to mull it over to pick just one!
Wonderful ideas. I want to share some of them with a “buy me this now!” child I know.
These are great projects. All my funds this year went to the Passports With Purpose effort to build a school in Cambodia. Last year it was Heifer Int. But these small efforts need the kind of promotion you are giving them. Blessings on you and Merry Christmas.
as with Alexandra, there are a lot of needs here where I live, as well. your post is a great reminder that we’re all connected, and each of us is called to give in different ways, places, and times. these are great opportunties. may your house be blessed this holiday season and in the new year.
May gifting like this become more mainstream as the years pass. This is an excellent list.
Wanted you to know I decided to give a goat to African children through CHABHA, on behalf of my granddaughter. The charity will send her an acknowledgement. The Web site shows children dancing. While she cannot understand HIV or “orphan,” she loves to dance and can find a connection with the children receiving her goat that way. I think you are right and that we all should participate, to the best of our ability.
Thanks, Alexandra. I really appreciate you letting me know this!
Great organizations! I have also given money to Kiva, which offers microfinance loans to small business-owners in third world nations, and Freedom from Hunger, which provides micro-credit loans and business/malaria prevention education to women in the third world. Happy Holidays, Jen!
Excellent post and great ideas. I always try to give to at least one charity this time of year in memory of someone I’ve lost who I would be giving a gift to if they were still alive. Like many who’ve posted here, my community has such great need this year. The one and only big employer laid off a 1/3 of its workforce in the past year, including my husband, but unlike us, many people have yet to find any work. It’s a sad situation all over, but the need is so much easier to see in a small town.
Thank you for this Jen. If we could all be spending our money on places like this, and not at the mall, the world would be a better place. I loved reading these stories of people taking something tragic and doing something wonderful with it. We also give to our local food bank since so many folks in America are needing help as well this year.
Thanks for the reminder about a great way to be charitable this holiday season!
Great ideas. My parents donated to a charity in my family’s name this year instead of doing presents and I think it’s the perfect gift!