What Are Some Charitable Gift-Giving Ideas?

Each year as Christmas approaches, people search for charitable gift-giving ideas. There are certainly a lot of options, including giving money to the bellringers in front of stores, donating food to shelters or pantries, purchasing items from businesses that give back, and many others.

GFA World also offers many options to give charitable gifts during the holiday season and throughout the year. With donations from generous people around the world, we can provide farm animals to families in poverty, opening a new source of income for them. We give blankets and winter clothing to people living in cold areas, protecting them from illness and the harsh winter temperatures. GFA World passes out mosquito nets that help prevent bug-borne illnesses. We build outdoor toilets, which protect the dignity of men, women and children and prevent disease from communal waste grounds. We also provide vocational training, allowing people to find better jobs as skilled workers and build better lives for themselves and their children.[1]

Another major gift idea through GFA World is sewing machines. These income-generating items open doors to a productive business and a path out of poverty.[2] Through the GFA World Christmas Critter Campaign, GFA missionaries in South Asia provided ten new sewing machines to a home for women from painful backgrounds. Some of the women have AIDS, some have come out of prostitution and others were abused. Whatever their story, each woman was desperate for a new start. That is where the sewing machines come in. The women can learn how to make a living for themselves with the machines―tailoring or making alterations or creating new clothing. The skill of sewing opens job opportunities the women wouldn’t otherwise have, saving them from a future of more poverty and hopelessness. The sewing machines are life-changing, revealing the caring love of God for each of the women.[3]

Heather, a believer who has helped provide some of GFA World’s Christmas gifts, said, “We just love to give practical, real gifts that keep giving throughout the year. … My boys know how much animals give food and what a gift it is to not go hungry. … We’re thankful we can give a little of what we have to those who don’t have. It teaches my boys a legacy to continue to do the same throughout their lifetime.”[4]


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