Christmas is approaching and some of you may have already started shopping for your presents.
As you think about gifts that will bring a smile to your loved ones faces, you might also want to think about bringing joy and so much more to a stranger in need.
These 10 gift ideas are sure to give back this Christmas!
Discover a new country every month with Paddington Bear
Here’s a fun gift for the young ones. UNICEF’s Paddington Bear monthly subscription will help children around the world stay healthy, educated and safe. As part of the subscription, the subscriber will receive a personalised postcard, stickers and information about a different country that they can add to their Paddington travel journal.
Help reunite a refugee family
The UN Refugee Agency Australia for UNHCR is inviting you to help bring families together who have been torn apart by violence and persecution; your gift will help reunite children with their parents. There are also other opportunities to help out, including buying a year’s worth of clean water, giving a life-saving essentials pack to a refugee family and providing sports equipment for children.
Support the elderly who are living alone with no family nearby
The Magic Moments Foundation has a list of Grandies (Grand Oldies) and donors are able to ‘adopt’ a Grandie and then purchase gifts that the Grandie has put on their wish list. The foundation has a team of volunteers helping to coordinate the gifting program and they will deliver the gifts to the Grandies.
Give a child the gift of reading
The Smith Family has a selection of school essentials for children of different ages. The Reading Resources Pack will help children living in disadvantaged areas, who often start school behind their other peers. Your gift will open them up to the world of books at an early age and help them establish the building blocks for literacy and a love of reading.
By partnering with The Smith Family, your gift will open up to the world of books for a child.
Adopt an endangered animal
WWF Australia has a few animals available for adoption, including koalas, platypuses, tigers and turtles. These will be symbolic adoptions, meaning that you won’t be able to take the animal home, but your donation will go towards field programs to support research and animal study. WWF also has the option to adopt a tree.
Empower women to thrive
UN Women Australia invites you to help a woman establish her business, become a leader or receive a second chance at education by providing an opportunity to gain financial literacy and business skills, leadership training or an opportunity to complete their secondary school certificate.
Donate a toy to a child doing it tough
Several charities have options for you to donate a toy online. The Salvation Army has a goal of 3,200 toys worth $80,000 this year. While The Kids’ Cancer Project invites you to donate a bear to a sick child in hospital. Proceeds from the sale of bears will also go towards funding scientific research to find better treatments and cures for different types of childhood cancer. Samaritan’s Purse also has its Operation Christmas Child, where you can fill up a whole shoebox with toys and other essential items for children.
Brighten up a child in need’s Christmas this year with a new toy!
Help the persecuted church
Open Doors allows you to choose from 12 different gift options to help the persecuted church, including delivering Bibles, providing funding for young people to attend youth camps and supporting widows with business training.
Give joy to families with disabilities living in poverty
CBM has several bundles available to purchase, such as their sustainability bundle, which provides a goat, cow and chickens for five families; sight bundle, which pays for eye surgery for an adult and 10 pairs of glasses; and mobility bundle, giving a plaster cast and walker for a child who has had surgery on their limbs.
Pass a soccer ball to a player in need
PARK is an impact-driven sportswear brand that partners with charities and organisations to help refugees and abandoned children around the world to help “level the playing field”. Its goal is to use the power of football to address global issues. Through its Pass-a-ball Project, you can buy a ball and PARK will pass another ball to a player in need around the world.