In a recent New
York Times (Sunday, December 1st,
2013) columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote some ideas for gift giving that most of us
have not heard of. First he writes about gifts to established charities – they
will tell your friend or family member that you gave the gift in their name:
*Buy a year of
schooling for a girl in Ethiopia through the International Rescue Committee
(gifts.rescue.org)
*Buy a flock of
geese for an impoverished family in a poor country through Heifer International
(heifer.org)
Here are his more unusual suggestions: –
*Help to prevent
unwanted pregnancies in kids here at home. The Carrera Adolescent Pregnancy
Prevention Program is a school curriculum “devised by a New York City education
expert, Dr. Michael Carrera, who recognized that it’s not enough to hand out
condoms. One also needs to give
kids in high poverty neighborhoods a stake in a better future, a reason to
think they can succeed. So the
curriculum includes comprehensive sex education but also financial literacy,
job preparation and summer internships, S.A.T. coaching and much more. The program has now spread to more than
20 states, and follow-up studies suggest it reduces pregnancy rates by half. For $50, you can fund a student’s
college savings account, part of the financial literacy element (information is
at childrensaidsociety.org).”
*Afghan Institute
of Learning, founded by an Afghan woman to run empowerment and training
programs for Afghan women and girls.
The institute was founded in the 1990s, when it was illegal, as girls’
education is threatening to the Taliban. $65 pays for a year of literacy
classes for a girl or woman. (AfghanInstituteofLearning.org.)
*GlobalGoodsPartners.org
will sell you gifts under $30 made by people all over the developing world,
such as a hand-embroidered scarf made by Afghan widows.
*HELP – Haitian
Education and Leadership Program.
HELP searches across Haiti for the most outstanding students from
disadvantaged backgrounds and sends them to college, while providing
counseling, English and computer tutoring and stipends. HELP students pledge to contribute 15%
of their earnings for their first 9 years of employment, to make the program
sustainable. (UHelp.net)
*Reach Out and
Read is a U.S. literacy program for the disadvantaged that uses doctors to
encourage parents to read to their children. They hand out free books and leaflets promoting bedtime
stories, thereby ‘prescribing’ reading to the child. Families in this award winning program are more likely to
describe reading as a child’s favorite activity. Books are donated by publishers like Scholastic. $50 covers a child’s cost for five
years. (ReachOutandRead.org)
Nicholas
Kristof and his wife Sheryl WuDunn
are heroes of mine. They wrote Half the Sky – Turning Oppression into
Opportunity for Women Worldwide in 2010. They travel the world to find people making a difference for
humanity in difficult places. I
try to pay attention to their suggestions.
Readers, have a
thoughtful and joyous holiday season.
Let’s hope for rain.
Sadja Greenwood, MD, MPH back issues on this blog
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