Let the Season of Giving Continue All Year Round
The Christmas season is drawing to a close and we solemnly usher in the year 2012. This season was a very special one in terms of giving. In the US, a lot of people dove out of their comfort zones and chose to help their fellow human being rather than use the money to buy self-indulging luxury items for themselves, we heard heartwarming stories of those who were giving record-breaking donations to the Salvation Army and anonymously paying off layaway items for total strangers. It would be so awesome if the season of giving could continue all year round, there is so much need in the world and it is not so difficult to address them. It costs less than most people would imagine.
For:
$1 – you can ship two books to a classroom in Africa. In many classrooms 20 school children share one text book. Organizations like BooksforAfrica and the RemiFoundation send books to schools in Africa
$2 – through the organization Little Kids Rock, you can buy a set of drumsticks (the ones you use to play actual drums and not the kind you eat) for a low-income public student in the United States learning to play the drums
$3 – you can pay for a field trip to a museum, concert or theatrical production for a high-risk youth, through the organization CreateNow
$4 – you pay for two hours of prepaid time for a soldier stationed overseas to call home. The organization Cell Phones for Soldiers was started by teen siblings in 2004 and has since mailed more than 1.5 million calling cards to American troops
$5 – you can partner with the organization Food for the Poor, whose mission is to renew hope by saving lives and transform communities. Your donation can buy a one-burner kerosene stove for a family that would typically rely on an open fire. The stove is reusable and less environmentally taxing than cutting timber
$6 – can pay for measles vaccinations administered by Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) for 15 children in a developing country
$7 – can buy a week’s worth of food for an abandoned dog or cat at a shelter run by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
$8 – you can partner with St Jude Children’s Hospital to buy a medical teaching doll to be used in educating a child about his or her cancer treatment
$10 – you can buy two specialized bottles for babies born with a cleft palate, who otherwise might suffer from malnutrition before receiving corrective surgery through Operation Smile
$12 – can pay for twenty pounds of multipurpose soap to help keep the families germ-free around the world, through Oxfam
