Goats, latrines, soccer for peace, baking classes and more
Your last-minute Christmas giving items are ready
Christmas is just around the corner, and MCC’s Christmas Giving opportunities provide meaningful and last-minute gift ideas that honor a loved one and help global neighbors in need.
Gift options include goats, latrines, soccer for peace, baking classes and more. All the gifts will be used by MCC partners who are working directly with people in affected communities to create positive change.
For those who would simply like to give where the need is greatest, MCC offers an option called gift of hope. Or if you can't decide, try this quiz!
The online Christmas giving options can be sorted by gift category and donation range, making it easy to find the right gift. Here are just a few of the available gift ideas:
Gifts of education
People shopping for the teachers in their lives might consider gifts of education in their honor.
A bigger gift can provide a year of kindergarten for Syrian and Palestinian refugee children.
A smaller but equally important gift opportunity helps keep girls in school. Many female students around the world miss days of school each month, or stop attending at all, due to a lack of feminine hygiene products. This gift provides students with soap and sanitary pads – a simple solution that helps create a brighter future for the next generation of girls.
Gifts of food and water security
To honor loved ones and friends who care deeply about communities with unequal access to food and water, MCC has multiple opportunities.
It is possible to sponsor an entire well for an underserved community. This will improve health and hygiene, as well as reduce the burden on women and children who are often tasked with walking many miles to collect water from distant sources.
“Our well is a blessing,” says Molita Nacuduzi, a participant in an MCC-supported clean drinking-water project with the Christian Council of Mozambique (CCM) in the small village of Chitongo, Mozambique, in 2019. “It is good for us all, [especially] for us girls who used to make that long and dangerous walk each day.” MCC photo/Paul Shetler Fast
On the plains of the Zambezi River, Chitongo is where MCC built its first well with CCM in 2004. CCM uses an innovative manual construction method to place durable, high-quality borewells that provide potable drinking water in communities where mechanical, drilling rigs cannot go. The CCM well in Chitongo, now over 15 years old, continues to provide plentiful clean water to more than 300 families with minimal maintenance done by the community itself.
“This project has meant more than I can say,” says Fraucido Foalo, a community leader and member of the Chitongo water management committee. “Before this well, we all had to collect water from the Zambezi River. It was dangerous. The water was dirty, people would get sick, and we lost many people to crocodiles in the river.
"Before this well, at least eight people, mostly children, died each year collecting water at the river. There have been no deaths since that time. The government used to have a clinic here just to treat injuries from crocodiles. That clinic has shut down, thanks to this well!”
An entire well costs $4,000, but you can purchase a portion of one. Your gift and others will be combined to buy a well.
For a smaller gift or stocking stuffer for fruit lovers, gift givers can provide nourishing, beautifying and sustainable fruit trees. Guava, papaya, olive and other kinds of fruit trees will provide communities with vitamin-rich nutrition for years to come.
Gifts of peace and welcome
MCC offers several opportunities to give in honor of friends or family members who want to help refugees and displaced people.
For people fleeing violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a gift of pigs helps them to earn an income as they rebuild their lives.
For a smaller budget item, gifts of welcome to help asylum seekers and other immigrant families are available. These gifts will help people understand immigration processes and complete appropriate paperwork, as well as support legal training for professionals who work with immigrants.
Asylum seekers who need temporary shelter, food and transportation after being discharged from immigrant holding centers also benefit from a gift of welcome.
After gift-givers have made their selections, they can personalize e-cards to surprise loved ones with the gifts made in their honor. These compassionate gifts will bring joy to people near and far.
