c. 1999 Religion News Service
(RNS) A variety of charities are offering alternative gift options this holiday season. Donors can give gifts in the name of loved ones or friends that will help needy people across the globe. Here’s a sample of some of the offerings of national religion-based charities:
_ Heifer Project International, a Little Rock, Ark.-based organization that works to fight hunger and poverty and is rooted in the peace and justice traditions of the Church of the Brethren. Contact: 1-800-698-2511 or http://www.heifer.org
Range of gifts in its”Holiday Gift Catalog”: From $20 chicks, ducks or geese to a $5,000″gift ark”that could include such species as water buffalo, llamas, camels, cows, pigs and sheep.
Most popular: goats, which cost $120 for a whole goat and $10 for a share of a goat, and water buffalo, which cost $250 for a whole animal and $25 for a share.
_ World Concern, a Seattle-based Christian relief and development organization. Contact: 1-800-739-9800 or http://www.worldconcern.org
Range of gifts in its”Global Gift Guide”: From a $15 gift for a”Rabbit Restocking Project”in Rwanda to an $800 gift of 10 bikes and a supply of Bibles for pastors spreading the gospel in Uganda.
Most popular: The rabbit project and the $25 gift of a goat for a family in Haiti.
_ World Relief, a Wheaton-Ill. based agency that is the relief arm of the National Association of Evangelicals. Contact: 1-800-535-5433 or http://www.worldrelief.org
Range of gifts in”Catalog of Hope”: from $1.25 fruit tree to help farmers in Nicaragua to a $2,500 gift for”health for the world’s children”that provides immunizations, nutrition and health education for 2,000 mothers and children.
Most popular: $1.25 trees and $50″life loans”that help families start or expand a small business.
_ World Vision, a Christian relief and development organization based in Federal Way, Wash. Contacts: 1-888-511-6511 or http://www.worldvisiongifts.org
Range of gifts in”International Gifts of Joy and Hope”catalog: From $20 gifts to immunize an Ethiopian child or pay for lunches for poor deaf children in the Gaza Strip to a $72,000 gift that would build and stock a medical clinic in northern Mali. Also featured this year: a $47,000 Toyota Land Cruiser, the type of vehicle World Vision staffers use to travel between villages in remote areas.
Most popular: Dairy goats _ $75 for one to go to a”child-headed household in Rwanda”_ and $25 worth of food to feed a family in Sierra Leone.
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