Three ways to increase the impact of your Christmas gifts
This Christmas, give your loved ones gifts that make a difference in the world.
MCC can help you do that through the Christmas Giving guide, where every single gift provides food, water, medical care and other community supports.
You can increase the impact of that gift from elf-sized to sleigh-sized by bundling gifts.
Even a few MCC Christmas gifts bought together can help a community thrive, providing even more support for people in need.
Here are three ways to increase your gift’s impact:
Farmers all over the world diversify their incomes by growing crops and raising animals, that way they can meet their own basic needs and sell any extras for an income.
By purchasing a number of gifts under the “fins to feathers” and “food and nutrition” categories of the Christmas Giving guide you can increase the impact of your gifts for farmers like Esperanza Sanchez Jimenez in Mexico.
For just $10, you can buy seedlings to grow lemons and other fruits, which improve a family’s nutrition, while also enabling them to pay for medical care, school and other necessary things.
An additional $40 can help a farmer purchase a pig—a living piggy bank. It can be sold, giving that person new chances to support themselves.
Another $10 will buy a brood of chicks. Chickens are wonderful investments for families because they are a ready source of eggs and meat, but can also boost earnings for families.
MCC also provides training in how to care for the seedlings and animals.
When you gift seedlings as well as animals, that means farmers have a variety of ways to earn income and support their families, which provides security in the event of a bad crop.
This year has been a challenging one because of the global COVID-19 pandemic. This Christmas, you can help improve health outcomes for people all over the world.
Purchasing a couple of gifts in the “health and care” category, you can ensure everyone, from babies to adults are healthy this holiday season.
Just $7 ensures people like Habibou Diandé in Burkina Faso have access to a high-quality mosquito net to help prevent malaria and other mosquito-borne illnesses.
An additional gift of $15 ensures mothers have items to keep their babies warm and clothed.
When you gift a mosquito net as well as clothing and blankets for babies, it ensures that families have holistic health supports.
Girls and women across the world often have fewer educational and work opportunities, leaving them vulnerable to poverty and exploitation.
Multiple MCC gifts made using the “education and opportunities” category in the Christmas Giving guide ensure that girls can stay in school and women can help contribute to their household income.
A gift of $25 gives Syrian refugee girls and others new chances by offering tutoring, lessons in self-esteem and care from social workers.
A generous gift of $150 ensures that women like Rejoice Alojo in South Sudan who have taken training in sewing and embroidery receive a sewing machine so they can start their own business.
Another gift of $50 then ensures that women with different skills can team up to start businesses together doing things like gardening and soap making.
When you gift those items together, it can provide support throughout a person’s life, from childhood to adulthood.
Remember that all gifts, whether they’re small or large, make a difference and help provide relief, development and peace in the name of Christ.
