This Christmas, Christian Aid is inspiring the British public to buy ethical gifts that could provide a lifeline to those living in poorer countries, who are trying to improve their lives.
Christian Aid’s new virtual shop, Charity Gifts, is designed to help festive shoppers spend their money on items that make a lasting difference.
Christian Aid's head of strategic communications Deborah Auty said: “This Christmas, we are encouraging the public to think of others by choosing ethical alternatives to traditional gifts.
“For those struggling to find a meaningful present for a loved one, Charity Gifts offer something that will transform people’s lives or help the planet.
“From stocking fillers to big gifts, our Charity Gifts store has something to suit everyone’s tastes. These include: The Animal Lover – animal-related gifts that nurture change; The Thoughtful One – presents that show love, care and wisdom; The Eco Warrior – green gifts that sustain lives and the earth; and The Entrepreneur – business-minded treats that allow people to build, grow and prosper.”
Every purchase acts as a donation to the work of Christian Aid and its local partners. Each present is accompanied by a lively card explaining more about the gift and the related project.
Christian Aid Charity Gifts will appeal to adults and children alike, with prices to suit all budgets. Just £10 could provide a sheep for a woman living in rural Ethiopia, so she can sell wool at a market and save money through a community savings group, to pay for essential medical care and education for her children.
A gift of refuge, worth £20, could help people who have been displaced from their homes to rebuild their lives in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
A gift of school books, bags and pens (£9) could help a Bangladeshi child to access education by giving them a grant for essential – but expensive – school supplies. A pack of five mosquito nets (£15) could help protect vulnerable young children from malaria in Nigeria.
At just £13, the ‘Hook, line and dinner’ fisher training programme could provide boats, nets and other equipment in Ethiopia, allowing people to fish in deeper waters and learn how to prepare the fish for sale.
Those on a bigger budget could gift a mobile health clinic (£115): this would give pregnant women in remote areas of Kenya access to antenatal check-ups and other medical care, and mean babies and young children can get their all-important immunisations.
A gift could provide an emergency disaster kit (£25) containing plastic sheeting for shelter, a mosquito net, cooking utensils, jerry cans and a water purification kit for communities displaced by civil war in South Sudan. It could also provide a hand pump (£30) to supply safe drinking water.
The Charity Gifts shop also features firm Christian Aid favourites. These include a pair of chickens (£8) for a family in Zambia and a nanny goat (£22), which could provide nutritious milk to supplement both the diet and income of a vulnerable woman in rural Kenya.
This year, Charity Gifts refreshes Christian’s Aid previous virtual gifting offer, Present Aid, which launched in 2005, and raised in excess of £17 million for Christian Aid’s work with poor communities across Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America.
For more information visit the Charity Gifts website.
Notes to Editors:
1. Christian Aid works in some of the world's poorest communities in around 40 countries at any one time. We act where there is great need, regardless of religion, helping people to live a full life, free from poverty. We provide urgent, practical and effective assistance in tackling the root causes of poverty as well as its effects.
2. Christian Aid’s core belief is that the world can and must be changed so that poverty is ended: this is what we stand for. Everything we do is about ending poverty and injustice: swiftly, effectively, sustainably. Our strategy document Partnership for Change explains how we set about this task.
3. Christian Aid is a member of ACT Alliance, a global coalition of more than 130 churches and church-related organisations that work together in humanitarian assistance, advocacy and development.
4. Follow Christian Aid's newswire on Twitter.
5. For more information about the work of Christian Aid, visit www.christianaid.org.uk
