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Ottawa XPress – Who gets your goat?
Xmas gifts that matter
By Shannon Beahen
Ottawa XPress,
November 30th, 2006
Do you know what you're buying your loved ones for Christmas yet? Well you should. I mean, this week marks the start of the Advent calendar for goodness sakes. But what you may not know is that Friday, December 1, is also World AIDS Day. So before the advertisers cajole you into a spending frenzy on pointless shit, you might want to consider an idea from the CHF (formerly Canadian Hunger Foundation).
Giftsthatmatter.ca was born out of a fundraising initiative to provide Westerners with an alternative to materialism and instead help families living in poverty, struggling with drought or surviving HIV/AIDS. Started up last year, the website allows you to spend anything from as little as $10 to over $500. But probably the best thing about this site is the selection.
Where last year they only offered donkeys (yes, donkeys), this year CHF is offering specific donations for 12 different items that will really make an impact in developing countries: $80 provides clean drinking water for a family in Vietnam, $40 provides a goat to a Zimbabwean family, giving them nutritious rich milk and a protein-rich food source, $150 buys malaria kits (three million people die every year from malaria), and so on.
Think about it: While you may never have gotten that pony you asked Santa for as a child, you could be brightening up a whole community with a donkey. Don't like donkeys? Well they've got seed gifts for you gardening types, small business starter kits to support women for the entrepreneurially minded, and nutrition gardens to assist orphans for you health nuts.
"What's nice about this year's selection is that you can adapt your gift according to the person you're giving the gift to," says Leah Geller from CHF's communications department. Even better, though, is knowing that your contribution grows once you give it - no, not just the seeds and four-legged variety: For every dollar you spend, the Canadian International Development Agency will contribute three.
Unlike some other charitable causes, this foundation subscribes to the "teach a man to fish" philosophy. Their sustainable approach and assurances that your contribution will actually get to the people you intended to help make Giftsthatmatter.ca awfully appealing. For example, as Geller explains, "Last year, we received more money than we needed for donkeys, so we redirected the unexpected donations towards the same project, but funds were used for things other than just livestock."