With the holidays around the corner, the thought of going out to try to find some thing for someone who doesn't 'need' any thing makes me literally sick to my stomach. And wading through the busy malls, surrounded by the over abundance and over indulgence - blech.
I decided a while back to stop buying birthday gifts for adults and instead make purchases on the intended's behalf from the World Vision catalogue.
I will also be doing that in lieu of stocking stuffers for everyone this year. My family draws names each year for one main gift each and I've also asked to have my gift in the form of a WV donation.
I will probably extend this idea in the future since everyone I know has so much and there are people around the world with so little.
There are so many organizations that make it easy to give with a clear conscience, either by gift buying that benefits the less fortunate or by making donations directly.
World Vision, of course
Heifer International The goal of every Heifer project is sustainability – project partners achieving self-reliance
CAMFED The Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED) is dedicated to fighting poverty and AIDS in rural communities in Africa by educating girls
The Hunger Site was founded to focus the power of the Internet on a specific humanitarian need. There's a great section for gift ideas there too. Funds go to the hungry
And I also focus on Fair Trade retailers more during the holidays
Fair Trade Federation has a link to lots of retailers in Canada and the US
10 Thousand Villages
The Hunger Site has a fair trade-specific catalogue
Traidcraft is based in the UK
Don't get me wrong - I will likely over indulge somewhat over the holidays myself. I'm not planning on living with guilt because of what I have. I do live in Canada, after all. And I don't feel bad about renovating my house and buying nice things for it. But I am more sensitive to the fact that I don't need as much as I have, and that I could stand to share more of what I have with those less fortunate. Plus I always try to be moderate in every choice I make.
Tami wrote a good post along these lines recently and the commenting got rather heated - but most enjoyable :-) Tami is a great blogger - not afraid to write about the touchy stuff.
I guess with the season of giving coming up, I am just more aware that I don't want it to turn into the usual season of receiving free for all.
And even though I plan to spoil Myfanwy when she arrives, I'm going to ensure she always understands the importance of sharing with others and that it's not all about material wealth.
