CHRISTmas 2005

2005-11-05T03:46:00.000Z

This blog is my Christmas 2005 suggestion list.

Rather than me accruing more 'stuff' I'd like you to direct presents 'to' me to others who really need them. There are a lot of suggestions here - you'll probably find something that inspires you somewhere!

Confused?

Read through the "What to Do" on the right.
Get to specific items by clicking their description in the "Navigation" bit on the right, under the "What to Do".
Find general links to sites that may be of interest in the "Links" section on the right, under the "What to Do" and the "Navigation".

You can also view the suggestions list, arranged;

- by following these hypertext links.
Lists you get to from these links are hosted on my very first bloglet -
the "Captain's Blog".

Start a Business; £50

2005-11-05T03:03:00.000Z

If I were going to be the person in charge of this business, you may be well advised to keep your hand in your pocket and not to invest. Fotrunately, I'm not the prospective M.D. - but someone who needs a leg-up to escape from the hole that poverty is would really appreciate the investment of faith in them. This present could go towards any sort of business - from farming to fashion - but whatever area it funds, the people it helps will appreciate it.

[ from Oxfam Unwrapped, www.oxfamunwrapped.com ]

Irrigate a Plot of Land for 1 Year; £100

2005-11-05T02:54:00.000Z

This little girl's having a lovely time, feeling the water make the hose all wriggly and alive in her hands, listening to the fizz of the water as it streams out, watching the sparkle of the sunshine through the droplets, feeling the cool wetness when she taps her fingers onto the squirting jet, having a sense of power that she could turn the hose onto whoever is taking the picture. I wonder if she did or if she remained as sweet and angellic as she looks in the photo!

It's not as easy as connecting a hose and turning a faucett in much of the world - and you certainly wouldn't catch anyone wasting water like this there. Crop yields can be dramatically improved by efficient soil irrigation systems, and Oxfam's expertise in this means that it can help make a big difference to the output and income of small farms. This present will irrigate someone's plot for a whole year. When it rains here, we all forget how fortunate we are that it does so so regularly.

[ from Oxfam Unwrapped, www.oxfamunwrapped.com ]

Farmer's Kit; £45

2005-11-05T02:44:00.000Z

Even kids' colouring-book pictures of jolly dungaree-clad farmers usually include tools. It's pretty hard to work the ground without some sort of hardware.

With these farmers' kits, Oxfam provide wheelbarrows, pitchforks, seeds and training to help people to make the most of their land so that they can not only feed themselves, but make a profit too by selling their produce.

The obvious song does beg to be sung though - so, all together now; "Old Mac-do-nald had a farm..."

[from Oxfam Unwrapped, www.oxfamunwrapped.com ]

Calf; £32

2005-11-05T02:36:00.000Z

Moo.

I don't suppose Oxfam will be sending any of these cattle anywhere, but heilan' coos are just such funky-looking animals that the picture had to be of them!

Cows are great multi-taskers (bulls appear to be more mono-task oriented...) they make milk for a family's use, they produce enough milk for the family to sell some, they produce fertilizer (pat on the head there sweetie), they can be used as meat... and they reproduce and start it all over again (...that's the bull's role done then).

Mail a moo this Christmas!

[ from Oxfam Unwrapped, www.oxfamunwrapped.com ]

Donkey; £50

2005-11-05T02:26:00.000Z

Shrek's donkey friend probably wouldn't be much use to your average farmer - but generally donkeys are great carriers and pullers of loads. This can help in ploughing or irrigation as well as in allowing farmers to carry more produce to market to sell. They work as passanger vehicles too - not just freight!

Donkeys are marked by their distinctive cross-shaped hair-ridges, lengendarily a relic reminder of Jesus's choice of an unridden colt as his steed upon which to enter Jerusalem on Palm Sunday while the people cried "Hosanna". Hosanna means 'God Save Us'.
Perhaps the gift of a donkey will be a part of God's answer to someone's prayer of "God, save us" this Christmas.

[ from Oxfam Unwrapped, www.oxfamunwrapped.com ]

10 Anti-Violence-Against-Women Campaigners' Sets; £20

2005-11-05T01:57:00.000Z

In Saudi Arabia last April a female TV presenter allowed photographs of her battered and bruised face to be publicised in order to draw attention to domestic abuse.

Rather than having people respect her bravery in allowing her damaged face to be on public display and in highlighting domestic violence, she was hit by a shockwave of outrage from across the country. Conservative islamic leaders had felt that she had too 'western' an image, and had resented her for some time - but when she went public about her husband's physical attacks on her, their anger intensified and fed the fury from many of Saudi Arabia's people. Last week she had to run away from both her home in Jeddah and from her country. Having fled in 'mysterious circumstances' she is now in Paris, and has said that she is no longer safe in Saudi and that she will never go back.

Domestic violence like this is ignored, tolerated and even accepted in some places. With this present, 10 sets of materials to assist those attempting to change these attitudes will make their way to those who need them. These people's efforts start small then grow - and Oxfam has already seen evidence of progress in these projects in South Asia. We women in the UK enjoy the protection of society's attitudes now - although not necessarily throughout our history - and we owe it to other women around the world to help them, as our debt of gratitude to those in our history who helped us.

[from Oxfam Unwrapped, www.oxfamunwrapped.com ]

Build a Toilet; £30

2005-11-05T01:41:00.000Z

This is the second lavatorially oriented item on my list - it's not something that comes up in conversation very often, for obvious reasons, but erecting this corrugated iron toilet could make a big contribution to improving health and hygiene in (for example) a refugee camp.
Cholera and typhoid thrive where there is inadequate sanitary provision. Build one of these and help make sure they don't!

[ from Oxfam Unwrapped, www.oxfamunwrapped.com ]

First Aid Kit; £30

2005-11-05T01:19:00.000Z

If I'm going to stick something on myself, albeit to cover up a hole in my epidermus, I might as well make it fun and funky. I rather like amusingly decorated plasters - and have sported Bob the Builder, Winnie the Pooh, The Simpsons, Leopard Print, Spots, Stripes, Disney Princesses - on top of little grazes and cuts. I'm particularly fascinated by why on earth someone has designed plasters with pictures of sushi all over them (second row down, furthest left in the piccy), but they might as well.

It seems odd, then, when someone like me can wonder about whether their plaster matches their outfit (no, I don't by the way - but I could), while other people living in places where they are more likely to have a cut or scrape get infected than I am can't get even the most basic 'band aid' - no, Bob & Bono, not you... go and be old, irish and torturedly concerned somewhere else - a sticking plaster.

This first aid kit probably doesn't have plasters or bandages with Tweety Pie or the Superman logo all over them - but it will be appreciated and will do just as good a job in servicing basic first aid somewhere that needs it.

[ from Oxfam Unwrapped, www.oxfamunwrapped.com ]

Essential Hygiene Kit & Feed a Family for 1 Month; £37

2005-11-05T01:01:00.000Z

Something happens. Something terriblePeople attack you and hundreds of other people you know
You have to leave home - run away
You end up exhausted in a refugee camp
A crowded pain-pit
Do you even feel as though you still have a life?
Have you any dignity or self esteem left?
Every meal is a struggle - even cleanliness on the most basic level is difficult
What if?

These pictures are all from Darfur - people crushed, blighted, and semi-forgotten by the rich in the world who could help them.
Pray for them.

This present isn't much in the grand scheme of things - but it could mean a huge amount to a family somewhere who needs it. Hygiene essentials and food for a month. Simple, basic - and I can't imagine ever feeling delighted to receive it. How decadently rich and lucky I am.

[ from Oxfam Unwrapped, www.oxfamunwrapped.com ]

Train a Health Worker; £38

2005-11-05T00:37:00.000Z

Health visitors probably have a fairly different life in Haiti or in Sudan or in Bolivia to the one that a lady such as the one in the picture would have known. Training and refresher courses in health awareness, counselling and hygiene would be something that both would recognise though - even if the courses took pretty different forms.

Health visitors are in the frontline of preventative healthcare - always better to have avoided something completely than to have to sort it out after it's gone wrong, especially somewhere where medical resources may be very limited. This present will improve and save many lives - and the best part is that they won't even necessarily know what they've been saved from!

[ from Oxfam Unwrapped, www.oxfamunwrapped.com ]

Train a Midwife; £46

2005-11-05T00:26:00.000Z

I love this picture - it's so calm without being saccharine, and the people are so real-looking without being very naturalistic.

Being a midwife must be stressful - ridiculously so at times, having the lives of a mother and a baby in your hands - but the flipside of that must be the chance to be there and be helping the miracle that is a new life being born every day of your working life. Amazing.

Since time immemorable women have had other women assist them at the birth of their children. This present will help train a midwife in an area where there may be few, or where traditional practises have not yet been enhanced by medical science's progress.

[ from Oxfam Unwrapped, www.oxfamunwrapped.com ]

Home Based Care Kit; £60

2005-11-05T00:10:00.000Z

AIDS is ravaging Africa.
It is stigmatised even in rich and educated countries like the UK - so it's not a huge surprise, shocking though it is, that some African leaders try to deny that it exists. While politics rumble on irrelevantly over people's heads, blocking their access to treatment and swollen pharmaceutical multi-nationals dig their heels in to protect precious pennies that they wouldn't even notice - people have to live. The orphans and other dependants they leave behind, many also HIV-positive, have to live too.

This present is slightly more practical than wearing a red ribbon - not that there's anything wrong with that, raising awareness is a good thing - it's too easy to forget when a situation's not immediate for you. It provides kitchen bits, blankets, soap & stuff and will have a big impact on their general health. Eating properly, staying warm and keeping clean all have a huge impact, even though they're very small things.

[ from Oxfam Unwrapped, www.oxfamunwrapped.com ]

Safe Water for 100 People; £72

2005-11-05T00:01:00.000Z

Over 25,000 people die every DAY from waterbourne diseases.Fred & Ginger = amazing tap
This present = amazing tap

They brought joy to millions and set toes tapping and people dancing all over the world.
This present can bring joy to a hundred people and set them dancing with delight.

Their generation of movies were harmless, sparkling with enthusiasm for the exciting advance that was moving talking singing pictures, and more often than not had happy endings
This present's water is harmless and sparkling clean - a striking advance on previous conditions - and will help ensure far more happy endings than would have been possible before.

how remarkable.
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers are like a water tank.
You read it here first...
;)

[ from Oxfam Unwrapped; www.oxfamunwrapped.com ]

Essential Medicines for a Village; £100

2005-11-04T23:50:00.000Z

Sertraline, Migraleve, Asprin, Sudafed.
I don't even think about getting hold of them - I tootle down to Boots (via the doctor's for a prescription for the Sertraline), and buy them from the nice pharmacist. Easy. If they don't have enough, I go back later or go to another shop (like Superdrug, which I think is generally better than Boots and certainly has a better animal testing policy than even the Body Shop, but doesn't have an Advantage Card, which is very handy once you've amassed loads of points then spend them all on holiday/tour provisions!). Easy - if occasionally irritating!

For many people, even Paracetamol and Asprin are rare and pills that actually do anything are few and far between. This package stocks a village's medecine cabinet for 6 months. Not much else to say really - it's fairly self-explanatory!

[ from Oxfam Unwrapped, www.oxfamunwrapped.com ]

School Desk & Chair; £15

2005-11-04T23:43:00.000Z

Arthur's Seat. It sits by Edinburgh awaiting a giant Arthur to return and place his giant arthurian posterior upon it in order to claim his missing chair.
This isn't exactly Arthur's seat - but it will be someone's, then someone else's the next school-year, someone else's the following one...

Arthur's seat appears not to be part of a set of chairs or of a dining-room suite, unless it has become seperated from the other gargantuan furniture that it matches. This chair comes with a desk too.

[ from www.oxfamunwrapped.com ]

Kit Out 5 School Students; £20

2005-11-04T23:26:00.000Z

It's been more than 10 years since I left school. Even so, I still feel a pathetic frisson of delight when I see the Back to School logos going up all over the shops and know that I don't need to go and get a school uniform - and school shoes, which always took aaaaaaages because my feet were a 'treble-A' fitting (i.e. very very narrow. Humph).

My primary school's uniform standards were so colditz-strict that even the little teeny-tiny elastic bands in your hair had to be the right colour (navy, grey or black unless you were wearing a 'summer dress', the blue-checked ones of which we were allowed to wear after the Easter holidays and before the summer holidays only, when the hairbands were to be white).

The school I went to during my secondary years, Cademuir, wasn't nearly so strict on its uniform regulations - but it rejoiced in emerald green jumpers and navy skirts ) although we were allowed to wear kilts. I did - my Douglas (dress tartan) one. Green jumpers were still grim though!

Although uniforms were always a drag, getting the new term's stationery was always fun - even though my mum usually seemed to get me boring sensible stuff. One year, when I was going into primary 5 (i.e. aged 9ish), I persuaded her to get me a metal box of Lakeland colouring pencils. She said I'd have lost them all by half-term. I still have them. All of them. In the original colour order. Ha.

This present will give the same 'new start' thrill to 5 schoolchildren somewhere. As well as that, the jotters, pencils, rulers and schoolbag will make a big contribution to their ability to do their schoolwork and so to their learning. Bit of a result from some stationery really.

[ from Oxfam Unwrapped, www.oxfamunwrapped.com ]

Teach a Teacher; £30

2005-11-04T22:59:00.000Z

As part of my job at Langham Arts I write lesson-plans and things for Prom Praise for Schools (pp4s). I love the challenge of finding an angle as a way into a topic, then crossing over the strands to make a web of cross-curricular teaching. At the same time as juggling these two dimensons, there's the added mental gymnastics of having to find ways of grabbing children who learn by doing, by reading, by reasoning, by physical bouncings, by touching, by singing... all sorts. Great, eh?

With this present, a teacher can get the change to have new ideas and new practises introduced into their approach to teaching. Bit of fresh idea-food to let your brain do some discussing's always a good thing - and an even better one to get some life into lesson planning. Janet and the other denizens of Langham Arts are fairly used to me popping in and asking them a weird question or telling them some odd little fact to see how they react and where conversation goes from that. Lucky them...

[from Oxfam Unwrapped, www.oxfmunwrapped.com ]

Learning Games; £60

2005-11-04T22:35:00.000Z

Trivial Pursuit - a game in which players pursue each other around the board and flex their general knowledge. You hop your little empty pie around the board aiming at answering one questions on each of the 'big pie' wedge squares thereby collecting different coloured cheese-shapes, brown, blue, green, yellow, orange & pink to show a full and balanced cross-curricular grasp of trivia.

Games are a good way of learning - for kids as well as for grown-ups - and I do rather enjoy a good board-game. Don't know if I count as a grown-up though...

...anyway this pressie's the gift of helping a teacher to make learning fun, as it should be :)

[ Oxfam Unwrapped, www.oxfamunwrapped.com ]

Camel; £91

2005-10-30T23:35:00.000Z

There can be few creatures who can portray such an impenetrable visage of disgusted supercilliousness as the camel. Every feature on a camel's face seems to have been constructed so that the beast can always show clearly that everything and anything that it could possibly encounter are so dreary, so insignificant, and so inferior as to hold no possible interest for the eyes beneath the long lazily blinking eyelashes. Apparently the spit from camels and llamas (a llama ate Liz's sandwich when she was little) tastes of yoghurt. They are apparently very accurate with their spittle-aim, and it is alleged that their range of fire is always slightly longer than you thought it was - regardless of what you thought it was. They're reputed to be stroppy, grumpy things - presumably spawning the phrase "got the hump" with their legendary diva temprament.

Camels, however, get away with their foibles because they are just so well-suited to their environment. The ships of the desert are perfectly designed for their environment, their bizzare capacity for time without food and water, their feet, even those sweeping proud eyelashes. That's why anyone would want one - although I'm sure they can be very nice when you get to know them.

[ Oxfam Unwrapped, www.oxfamunwrapped.com ]

A Month's Teaching for a Class & a Teacher's Kit; £82

2005-10-30T22:45:00.000Z

The thought of the unearthly screeching sound effects in the above cartoon makes me cringe - but you can see why some teachers might be driven to such drastic methods! That or mark off time, counting the days and weeks until holiday time comes around again.

A Month is about a third of a term. A term is about a third of a school year
If three people decide that this is what they want to give me for Christmas, that'd be a whole term taken care of for one class.

Every term that children are in school they're learning - and the great thing about this gift-pack is that not only does it pay the teacher, it resources them too with plans and teaching aids as well as boards and other things. That means that the teachers are able to do what they do well, with the resources they need, so the time really counts for the children, and the teachers can get satisfaction from what they do. It's an upward spiral, really.

[Oxfam Unwrapped, www.oxfamunwrapped.com ]

School Dinners for 200 Children; £12

2005-10-30T22:23:00.000Z

Threefers and Bogofs are very good things. They are also pretty magnetic - suddenly you are convinced that instead of one packet of cereal, you really should get 3. Bogoffs are even better - pick up an extra one of whatever you were going to get, and stock up.

I've never seen an offer as good as this one - 200 kids' meals for £12. And I think it'd be churlish not to take full advantage of it!

They're not going to be anything fancy or cordon bleu, but they'll be nutritious and filling - a good thing as they're sometimes the only meal that some kids will have in a day. It gives the parents an incentive to send their children to school - even the girls, who complete, on average, fewer years of education than boys do. That means less of them are literate, and that if they end up as lone mothers things are even harder for them than they would be if they could fill in forms, read signs, books, newspapers and other information, and help their children with their homework.

[Oxfam Unwrapped, www.oxfamunwrapped.com ]

Support for a Family At High Risk of Homelessness; £30 for 1 Month

2005-10-30T21:38:00.000Z

The amazing and inspiring statue of Christ opens its arms to the city and the sea beyond. Dad said that you could see this majestic figure from everywhere in the city.

Despite the sculpture's all-seeing stony gaze, Rio de Janeiro (like much of Latin America) sees some crushing, grinding, unrelenting poverty. With this present {scroll to 9}, the towering image of Christ might be able to preside over one less homeless family who might have splintered under the crash of inpoverishment and added to the city's ranks of rough-sleeping adults and children, if the Toybox Charity are able to intervene and help them to paper over the cracks, maybe even repairing them altogether.

[ Toybox Charity, www.toyboxcharity.org ]

Vocational Training for an Ex-Homeless Teenager ; £53 for 1 Month / £12 for 1 Week

2005-10-30T21:07:00.000Z

As Disney's dwarves sing and whistle on their commutes to and from work, I wonder how they ended up being miners. Who taught them? Who took on seven apprentices, each of whom has some aspect of their personality grotesquely and comically overexaggerated, and one of whom was a bit of a doofus? Someone must have taught them though - they wouldn't have just picked up a trade on their own.

With this present {scroll to 8}, a teenager who's been living on the street - or who is at risk of ending up homeless - can crank their future expectations up several gears. Whatever vocation they feel that they would like to pursue, Toybox can arrange for them to train in it. What a brilliant present. A life, a career, finances... fantastic - but real. Unlike our seven animated friends.

[ Toybox Charity, www.toyboxcharity.org ]

First Stage of Drug Detox for a Street- or At-Risk Child; £58

2005-10-30T20:11:00.000Z

To most people; Superglue.
To some people, some street-children included; a drug.

Why? Why make things worse when they're already bad?

You can understand it though, wanting to have something to do with people, have something in common, have something to escape with, something to aim for in each day. This present {scroll to 7} would start a child on the way to not needing to use any kind of drugs or to abuse alcohol. From what I understand, detox programmes don't ever come with any sort of guarantee, but it's worth trying. It just might work, and that picture would be back to just being a strong adhesive again.

[ Toybox Charity, www.toyboxcharity.org ]

Medical Help for Street Children for a month; £16

2005-10-30T18:56:00.000Z

If you live on the streets you're more likely to get ill or to be hurt than if you don't.
If you live on the streets it's harder to get medical treatment (or preventative medicine) than if you don't.
The combination of these two statements spells bad news for homeless people all over the world.

I never thought that I'd find a G.P. I actually liked - but my current one in Harrow has proved me wrong. He's got a huge brain (according to his practise colleagues too), he's a Christian, he doesn't patronise me, he fills in background & history on conditions and medications and he listens. Oh, and he's got a surreal twist that pops into apparency occasionally! Much as Fergus is a good doctor, even the best G.P. would struggle to care for homeless patients.

Their lifestyle, their lack of address, the difficulty in finding them, their poverty, the lack of trust in other people that many have - all conspire to strangle their health even more than it already has been by living rough. This present {scroll to 5}would allow people who have got a bond of trust, and who the street-children would feel able to seek out when needed, to help these vulnerable childre take care of their health. Prevention is always better than trying to cure something that's already there - and even now there are illnesses that elude medical science's ability to make them better.

Bianca lived on the streets all her life. Her experience of life was of being used and hurt at every corner. Yet she had a beautiful smile and a beautiful spirit. She was one of the first girls to move into one of the first homes opened by the charity for former street girls. She had come home. However, it soon became obvious she was very ill.

Bianca was one of a growing number of people in Guatemala with HIV, which developed into AIDs. Children have many medical problems when they come off the streets, from minor skin infections, to psychiatric problems which are dealt with - but this was an illness for which we could provide comfort for the symptoms but not a cure.

Tragically, the final toll of AIDS on Bianca’s life was too much for her to want to share with her new family and she left the home to die quietly alone. The street team met her shortly before her death and she said how grateful she was for the brief spell of happiness and love we had given but especially for the hope she now had of a life beyond this one.

[ Toybox Charity, www.toyboxcharity.org ]

Rent, Clothing & Food for an Ex-Street-Child in a Home: £91 for 1 Month / £21 for 1 Week

2005-10-30T16:42:00.000Z

I love looking at children's drawings and paintings.This one's been done very carefully - they've used a ruler to do nice straight walls, although the one on the left and the roof on the right went ever so slightly wobbly. All the windows have lights on - maybe that's window-boxes or hanging baskets in the middle of the walls - so it's obviously a nice house where someone lives and looks after it.It's been coloured in very well - no flecks straggling over the outlines - although it might be that the inhabitants of this house were so cosy and happy inside that they forgot to put a door in until after they had painted their outside walls green! I'm sure that if you could step into this picture and walk up the garden path to knock on the green house's green door you would find a warm and friendly welcome, and probably an invitation to come in and have some tea.

It would be interesting to see what a child who lives on the streets would draw if they were asked to draw a house or 'where I live'. Would the house be like an inaccessible castle, high above any people in the frame? Would 'where I live' show paper bags used to inhale solvents from discarded by filthy sleeping bags on cold streets?

The children that Toybox has been able to help would be able to draw a very different picture after Toybox had stepped in to help them - Street Teams lead to Day Centre lead to Hostel lead to Homes lead to School & Training lead to Reintegration in Society.
With this present {scroll to 4} you'd be letting me share a little tiny bit in the care and security offered in one of the Toybox homes by 'mum' and 'dad', up to around 12 brothers or sisters, teachers, psychologists and social workers.

[ Toybox Charity, www.toyboxcharity.org ]

10 'Award Winning' Buckets; £23

2005-10-30T16:10:00.000Z

The mother of all buckets has landed;
The Oxfam Bucket
winner of a bucket award
coming soon to a pump near you.

SO, a special bucket, eh?

What does it do? Sing and dance? Serve after-dinner drinks? Find you the best onine price for insurance?

Well, no - but it has been designed with great care and thoughtfulness. You'll have seen that when you clicked on the 'special bucket' link above, but I just thought this little bit from Oxfam's description of it was delicious.

...the moulding process leaves a small pimple on the bottom of normal buckets. This pimple is removed from the Oxfam bucket - an essential, but easily overlooked consideration for use in countries where loads are usually carried on the head.

It might not look flash or impressive...
but it's a truly brilliant piece of designer kit for lots of people who use it.

[ Oxfam Unwrapped, www.oxfamunwrapped.com ]

Healthy Meals for a Street-Child for a month; £72 (£17 for a week)

2005-10-30T14:14:00.000Z

Margarita’s story...

Margarita was a street girl who often used to beg outside restaurants and cafes in Guatemala City. She was grateful for any leftover chicken and chips and whatever anyone gave her. When the street team visited her, they would bring some food, just soup and a roll but one day the street team told her they were taking her out for a meal.

She couldn’t believe it, she felt like a princess going into the restaurant like one of the rich people and eating to her heart’s content. Being treated with dignity like this helped her realise her value as a person and to build up the determination to leave behind street life, moving to the hostel and joining one of the homes.

Jamie Oliver has become the patron saint of school meals of late. It was bizarre to see the children & parents' reactions when he started changing things in the school he was in during his TV series. Apparently there were parents up-in-arms about the change in diet (to a healthy one?!) and they'd come to the school gates at lunchtimes with a MacDonald's for their little darlings to make up for all those awful vegetables and things, and presumably also to make sure that their kids remained as obese by the end of the day as they were in the morning.

Jamie's efforts might have been more appreciated by the children that Toybox works with. Living as a scavenger isn't easy - and many of the children have solvent or drug addictions which they, as addicts, will prioritise over getting hold of food. Malnutrition is the obvious product of this, for many - and if you give me this present {scroll to 3} it's not just shouting a dinner, it's feeding a child who really needs it for a whole month (or a week for £17).

[ Toybox Charity, gifts for a street-child, www.toyboxcharity.org.uk ]

Month of Support for 'Houseparents'; £38

2005-10-30T13:25:00.000Z

A child's drawing of a family. Simple and natural.

It's not so simple and natural for all children - the street-children of Latin America (with whom the Toybox Charity works) often have taken refuge on the dangerous underbelly of their cities' streets to escape their family.

Estuardo's story...

Who can tell what the love of a Mum and Dad means to a child who has known nothing but pain from the hands of adults?

A few years ago, one of the children from the homes visited the UK. One of our supporters met him at a celebration event and this is what she wrote, "Estuardo stood for nearly ten minutes, watching a mother and her son. The boy he was watching was seven and he was sitting on his Mum’s knee, stroking her face as his Mum cuddled him and stroked his hair.

This is the opposite treatment from Estuardo’s experience of his own Mum, who had hurt him so badly, he fled from home. Estuardo obviously so much wanted to be a part of what he saw, that he began to give the son sweets, one at a time. Then he turned to look at me. As I held out my arms to him, he ran straight into my arms and hugged me. When I lifted up his young face, his eyes were wet with tears."

The work of the houseparents in the homes is to give the children the unconditional constant love of committed parents, a love they have never known.

There are children in the U.K. who do the same - and even in this rich country, homeless children are barely provided for, which is a disgrace.

Toybox works in Latin America - and its progressional plan to teach children how to live in the acknowleged community rather than in the ignored and buried world of the streets seems very well thought-out and sensible. This present {scroll to 2} is another one on the theme of fostering children - something I think I'd like to do as there never seem to be enough foster-families around. Parents for a month - if 12 people get me this item from my list, that's a whole year!

[ Toybox Charity, gifts for a street-child, www.toyboxcharity.org.uk ]

A Bed for a Street-Child for a Week; £15

2005-10-30T13:08:00.000Z

Does this guy look comfortable as he sleeps?
- silly question.

Having had M.E. for the last 4 years or so, I've been doing much more sleeping than I used to. My big comfy double-bed at Liz's house is great, as is my big comfy futon at my Mother's house in Glasgow (not that I'm up there much, but I will be over Christmas).

I've already got 2 beds - and I'd rather like another one {scroll to number 1} this Christmas.It's not for me though - and it's rather further from London, where I live, than Glasgow is. It'd give a child in Latin America a bed for a week. Doesn't sound like a huge contribution - but for a street-child it's a week of safe, warm, comfortable nights. Tragic that that should be special, isn't it?

Imagine that going to bed was exciting for the kids you know. For a week, bedtime might actually be exciting and positive for a child in one of the Latin American countries.

[ Toybox Charity, gifts for a street-child, www.toyboxcharity.org.uk ]

Six 10-litre Plastic Buckets With Lids; £10

2005-10-30T12:30:00.000Z

Most of the buckets knocking around at Christmas are champagne buckets, or at least sparkling-wine buckets. I hate champagne, but I'd like a bucket, please. Six of them, in fact.
As the words of the immortal song "There's a Hole in My Bucket" point out, it's rather hard to transport water if you're bucketless or if your bucket is holey.

Plastic buckets are easier to clean than wooden ones, and less likely to rust than metal ones. That's particularly handy if the bucket's owner happens to be very old, very young, ill or doesn't have much to clean it with.

A bunch of buckets is a pretty simple present - but it could be hugely useful to many people. If you've got a few coins to defray the cost, chuck it in the bucket.

[ Save the Children shop, www.savethechildrenshop.co.uk ]

1000 Water Purification Tablets; £10

2005-10-30T12:11:00.000Z

During the ubiquitous adverts whose prevelance only increases during the festive season there are a number of categories of ad that you are definately going to see. Amongst these seasonal favourites are;

Toys
Loans
Chocolate
Booze & Bevvy
Hangover Cures
annual 26th December Cadbury's Creme Egg advert on telly

The hangover cure adverts have one clear leader (in my humble opinion) in terms of a slogan or strapline -

"Alkaseltzer, the science of plink-plink fizzics"

It's a stupid play on words, but it gets the point across. Plop these little pills into water and then when you drink it it will give you blessed relief from the drunken penguins' flying-lessons going on in your head.

I'm not exactly planning on getting hammered over Christmas - but I would like some fizzy pills to drop in water. These ones aren't designed for one after one has been stupid enough to imbibe enough alcohol to give one a stinking hangover and make one feel like something the cat disdained to drag in, they're water purification tablets.

Clean the water
Prevent diseases
Save lives

simple, eh?
Maybe there should be an omnipresent 'holiday season' advert for these too, alongside all the others. 1000 for a tenner's certainly a good offer.

[ Save the Children shop, www.savethechildrenshop.co.uk ]

Hygiene Kit; £20

2005-10-30T11:53:00.000Z

Packs like these must walk off of shelves at Christmas time - everyone in the U.K. seems to get at least 3 sets of presentation-boxed 'smellies' every year. They're not exactly original, but they are very nice, usually very appreciated, and always very useful. This Christmas I want a toiletries set - but not one of the ribbon encased aromatherapeutic moisturising ones - this one.

For a family swept up in an emergency, perhaps ending up in a camp with hundreds or thousands of other people, epidemics are an all too real possibility. Frustratingly, many of the diseases that thrive amongst them are preventable by the provision of basic equipment. Toothbrushes, razors, soap, washing powder, sanpro, toilet roll, shampoo, toothpaste... nothing fancy.

As well as the health help this could give people, it's a gift that could help people feel better about themselves. If you're clean and groomed you feel better, more able to face other people and less grimy and embarassed. Some of the people who would be given one of these have had all their dignity stripped away. This simple little package could put a sliver of that dignity back where it deserves and belongs.

[ Save The Children shop, www.savethechildrenshop.co.uk ]

School Library Books; £7

2005-10-30T00:18:00.000Z

Had you guessed yet that I'm a 'book person'?
I suppose that my love of reading makes me aware of just how much pleasure, knowlege and empowerment it's possible to gain just by running your eyes over a printed sheet of words.

There's no reason why so many people should remain subjugated by illiteracy. Of the 20% of our planet's population that can't read (yup, mostly in the developing countries), most are girls and women. Early marriage, childbearing, household duties, parents and societies seeing secondary education as better to give to sons, concerns about girls' safety and, of course, girls having to step in as caregiver if something has happened to their parents and noone else can do so. Only 64% of the women of the world are literate.

With these library books as a present, you'd be letting me help girls and boys to change the statistics, starting with themselves.

[World Vision catalogue, www.greatgifts.org ]

Emergency Cooking Set; £12

2005-10-30T00:07:00.000Z

I'm not much of a cook. I suppose I can do it - but I can never be bothered. Why cook for one person? It seems like rather a waste of time to me.

The thing I never consider is how fortunate I am to have an option - at the moment in Gujurat, after the earthquake that shook the people there in every possible sense of the word, there are probably mothers who would give anything to be able to knock up a proper hot meal for their families' dinner tonight. They don't have anything to give to make it happen - but if you choose this present (how often do I ever think about anything remotely cookingesque for Christmas?!) for me, then we'll have given a ittle bit, together, to them.

[ World Vision catalogue; www.greatgifts.org ]

Immunise a Child; £20

2005-10-29T23:51:00.000Z

Vaccinations must be horrible for mums. You take in your lovely peaches and cream smiling chubbly baby to see the doctor, then you bring out a prune-wrinkled scarlet screaming tomato who proceeds to be grizzly and not-quite-right for a day or two afterwards.

With this present, you'll be giving me the chance to give mothers in developing countries who couldn't afford injections, but whose babies are probably more vulnerable than those whose mums can, the opportunity to experience the scenario above as they bring their child to have his or her immunisations for the six main childhood killer diseases, Diphtheria, Whooping cough, Measles, Polio, Tetanus and Tuberculosis.

Weird how the good things we take for granted are even a bit of a trial for us, in our little patch of globe here. Better a bit of yelling and grizzling for a bit rather than a total cessation. We don't even have to contemplate the latter. If only everyone in the world was as lucky as the few of us perched on top of the human heap here in the rich nations are.

[ World Vision catalogue, www.greatgifts.org ]

Carpentry Kit; £44

2005-10-29T23:00:00.000Z

Does the fact that I own this book make me a very sad person?
If not, owning this one certainly does!

We don't value our artisans much in the U.K. They're very skilled and necessary people though. My dad was good with his hands - epecially making little models and things - although his trade was as an electrician, preferring working on the Merchant Fleet's Cunard-line oil-tankers (pre-me) and on North Sea oil-rigs (post-me) to doing household stuff. He was excellent at the domestic stuff too though - however much it wasn't his favourite thing. He served his apprenticeship in the Clyde shipyards in their heyday and won an award for being the best of the apprentices in the dockyards.

Someone able to do all that sort of stuff should be valued more - the fact that they're not means that there are never enough skilled workers around, especially with apprenticeships and vocational training being seen as inferior or less desirable than academic bits of paper. Which impresses you more; a degree in 'Golf Course Management' or a fully trained tradesman's apprentice?
No contest.

I don't know that I've acquired my dad's skill at working with my hands - but making my first ever viola at Cambridge Violin Workshop has been such a fantastic experience. It still needs varnishing, but all the wooden bits are there and I strung it up 'in the white' to hear what it sounds like. It's not bad at all. Its maker's label inside contains a dedication to my dad.

Although I'm quite some eons away from being a star pupil, I've learned a huge amount during the making process - not least the sheer joy and satisfaction that comes from working wood with handtools (even when you're a total beginner doing it in a hamfisted (maybe even spamfisted) way. If you get me one of these for Christmas, I'll be giving not only the physical tools, but also the tools in terms of the skills needed for someone else to learn the useful trade of carpentry. It's rather different, I expect, to the fine woodworking used in lutherie - but it could give someone a job, dignity and the satisfaction of using his or her hands on tools to make wood do their bidding.

Name a famous carpenter (no, not them), anyone? Oh yes, Joseph of Nazareth and his son, Jesus...
...can't be a bad job then, can it? Not with Heavenly endorsement!

[ World Vision catalogue, www.greatgifts.org ]

School Classroom Equipment; £48

2005-10-29T19:36:00.000Z

If you want to make sure a group of children don't wriggle around and shift about like particles in a dust-storm, it's often a good plan to have them on chairs rather than on the floor. That way they've got a clearly deliniated space marked out for them by the chair (and desk, if there is one).
It's also rather hard to write legibly if you've got no desk to lean on, and some people find chairs more comfortable to sit on than the floor, apparently (weird).

This present would consign a whole class of children to sitting on chairs.
On the plus side, though, it would give the class a board, desks, and stationery - all good things to help the learning process. I suppose some of them might like the chairs too.

[ World Vision catalogue, www.greatgifts.org ]

Books for a Class; £53

2005-10-29T19:28:00.000Z

Books are back again - all my Christmas wish-lists would probably have had at least one book on them, especially if they were as long as this one!

This list is no different - except that this is textbooks for a whole class.
"Now, everyone, turn to page 23. Tarquin, would you start to read from the top of the page please?"...

[ World Vision catalogue; www.greatgifts.org ]

Birth Attendant Kit; £67

2005-10-29T19:17:00.000Z

This photograoh is so cool. The tiny hand holding onto the surgeon's finger belongs to a pre-natal baby - being operated on while still in the womb. Amazing
The whole birth thing is amazing though, isn't it? A woman carrying another little person around inside her, then somehow managing to push it out when it's reached a size that seems impossibly big.

It's no surprise when you think about it that births can throw out complications. It must give everyone around mother and child great peace of mind to know that there's someone there who knows what they're doing, and who has the right stuff. I can't fill the midwife role - but through this present, I can help someone else to do so. A tiny, tiny part in all those little miracles entering the world. Amazing.

[ World Vision catalogue, www.greatgifts.org ]

Child 'Survival Pack'; £25

2005-10-29T18:49:00.000Z

As everyone watches out trepiatiously for their local sparrows to start sneezing governments around the world are stoking up on 'Tamiflu' - the key anti-viral drug to combat a mutated H5N1 avian flu strain that is contagious between people - Thailand has only enough for 62,000 people. Its population is 62,000,000. The [sole] maker of 'Tamiflu' (what is it with pills & stupid names?), Roche has said it would "consider" relaxing its patent in a pandemic. Woo hoo. Big deal. How kind.

Hulking great multinational pharnaceutical companies hold over 90% of all drug patents. That's a stranglehold on the market and then some. Why is this allowed? People deserve to benefit from their inventions and discoveries, but surely there's got to be areas where the patent system is not working as it might. This one, for example.

30,000 people die every day because effective medications are too expensive.

Many of those who succumb are children - wee tinies under 5. These 'survival pack' thingies are important health basics (yes, basics, we're not talking antiretrovirals or anything adventurous here) — immunizations, antibiotics, rehydration solutions, insecticide-treated netting, Vitamin A and other micronutrients — helping children survive to age five in developing countries. It's a start.

[ Rx for Child Survival, UNICEF, Save the Children, Care; link ]

Repair a Well; £67

2005-10-29T17:23:00.000Z

Well, making a well well well again for water to well from it for a community.
It's amazing that in a world with such technological, scientific expertise as ours there are still people for whom clean, safe water is an issue.

Did you know that 20% of the world's population doesn't have access to safe drinking water. To put it another way, that's over a billion people. That works itself out as one child dying from a disease this unsafe water has caused every 15 seconds. Why? How? Why are we all so useless and so powerless? How can we not be?

every
15
seconds
1
child
dies
of a disease
caused by

bad water.

That makes my blood run cold when I stop and think about it.

Water Aid.

The cheesey cartoon wishing-well picture above may be a cheesey cartoon - but his sentiment is the one I'll have in my thoughts if you were to decide to give me this for Christmas.

[ World Vision catalogue, www.greatgifts.org ]

Children's Literacy Class; £100

2005-10-29T16:14:00.000Z

The Mitchell Library, Glasgow

I love reading - I always have. I always have a book on the go, and I could spend a fortune several times over at amazon.co.uk without any trouble at all.

My current favourite authors are Jodi Picoult & Kate Long - particularly Picoult. I've read, got waiting to read or have ordered all 12 (13?) of her novels to date, and have yet to be disappointed. Remarkable - HIGHLY recommend!
Reading's not just for pleasure though - it's a significant way of absorbing information - and if you're illiterate giving information that agencies require of you in forms isn't going to be easy either.

I'd be happy to start a child off or help them along with reading - I can get all enthusiastic or excited by that without any effort at all - hence this pressie on my wish list.

[ Worldvision catalogue, www.greatgifts.org ]

Cleft Lip Surgery; £100

2005-10-29T15:56:00.000Z

It must be hard to look 'different' - and when that difference is an obvious facial one, that affects your speech, it could be quite crippling.
There are problems with eating too - as you can imagine, from these pictures.

Cleft lip can be corrected though with relatively simple surgery - it has no bearing on a person's intelligence, I know a very clever doctor who had one. It's shocking and disgusting how often it appears to be assumed that anyone who doesn't quite fit into the 'normal' box is thought to be somehow less clever, less sensitive to stares, and somehow almost less real or less human than those who do.

This present will be the first plastic surgery anyone's ever given me!

[ Worldvision catalogue, www.greatgifts.org ]

Support for a Vulnerable Child; £65

2005-10-29T15:11:00.000Z

Reach out your arms and watch them telescope, stretching like rubberised tendrils as you give a child on the other side of the world a hug!
I am seriously considering foster parenting - maybe a couple of years in the future, not right now. It seems bizarre to me that there seem to be more children around than love available.

Plenty of them are right here in our bloated and affluent society, some are in other places where their societies have been so pillaged, damaged and crushed that they are in a position to be even more vulnerable than our children in the richer west - and some children here have less than nothing.

Child Soldiers are an example. We don't hear that much about them. Why? Surely everyone is outraged by this - or are we just finding it easier to ignore it? Probably. We shouldn't though, should we. It's just so easy to let your brain bury stuff, then you read the same grim statistics and connect the numbers again with humans. There must be some way to help - even in a small way.

Over 300,000 children are being used as soldiers - many of them haven't yet seen their 10th birthday - by governments as well as by guerilla groups. They're small and light - easily intimidated and bullied as well as being easier than adults are to condition into the mindset of a 'killing machine'. Some are supplied with drugs and alcohol to keep them complient. Some are abducted and forced into beoming solders. Others drift into it or are driven in by poverty, abuse or extreme alienation. AK47s are light enough for kids to carry, and you can pick one up for £10-15 (about 20 USA dollars) in some countries - or they could find themselves working in other areas of soldiery; spies, messengers, sentries, porters, servants - even objects upon which other fighters can vent their sexual frustrations and desires.

By giving me this present you'll be giving me a little something of the privelages of serving children as a foster-carer; to give care, love and support to a child who is vulnerable and hurting. To give a chance to play and laugh to a child who knows only grind and sadness, To give developmental and educational opportunities to a child who may have thought they had no future.

[CAFOD World Gifts, www.worldgifts.cafod.org.uk ]

Counselling, Healthcare & Support for Victims of Violence; £40

2005-10-29T14:50:00.000Z

Things happen in the world that you just can't imagine if you've not actually physically been there. Darfur, Gujurat, Iraq, Zimbabwe, Serbia... the list goes on and on hopelessly, you want to scream at the aggressors to stop and to get over themselves because can't you see that there's innocent people and children and babies not yet born suffering immeasurably
and don't you care...

One of the things that caught my eye about this gift is that survivors support each other as well as having professional help. That strikes me as valuable - there are some people for whom being able to say "You know what I mean?" or for whom knowing someone else has experienced similar things to them must be a rare thing.

Dona nobis pacem in terra,
Dona nobis pacem Domine.

[ CAFOD World Gifts, www.worldgifts.cafod.org.uk ]

Water; £30

2005-10-29T14:23:00.000Z

· A topographical study of communities to benefit from the water projects

· Design of water systems appropriate to each village

· Discussions with the communities to share information and agree work plans

· Organisation of beneficiary communities into working groups · Training and supervision during construction

· Building of water systems, bring water direct to individual households

· Awareness-raising meetings on public hygiene, domestic sanitation, the use and management of water, the operation and maintenance of the water system and the environmental protection of water sources.

· Creation of a community fund for water system maintenance and repairs, which is administered by a people's committee.

All elements that this present will contribute to.

Being Scottish, I've never really had to worry unduly about drought
- water isn't exactly rare in the celtic lands.

We moan about it...
...but we'd have a lot more reason to moan without it.

Your average John Doe or Jane Doe in America uses 600 litres of water a day, while his European friends average 250 litres a day.
That means that here in the UK (not a place that tends towards being short of water, but we probably should be a bit more resectful of it) we wash away 1050 litres every week per person.

In Africa, the averge person uses 30 litres a day.
It's hot there - dry too, if anyone's using more it should be Mr or Ms Average from Africa rather than Mr & Ms Average from America or Europe.
I don't understand what went wrong. How did our gluttony start to strangle them? Why can't we sort something out? There's so many really clever good people around - what's getting in their way?

[ CAFOD World Gifts, www.worldgifts.cafod.org.uk ]

Latrine; £15

2005-10-29T13:57:00.000Z

Tee hee hee, toilets. Tee hee hee, bottoms.
Tee hee hee, poo. Tee hee hee, wee.

right. that's out of the way now.

Imagine the look on someone's face when you both flop down, knackered, in a coffee-shop mid-flight in your Christmas shopping and your "I got so-and-so perfume", "I got such-and-such socks" conversation is derailed by you saying "I got dum-de-dum a toilet. A pit latrine actually."
I'd love to see the evesdroppers' reaction to that one! You might have to explain - maybe printing out this bit from CAFOD's catalogue might help If you decide on this gift.
If sheer badness isn't enough reason for you (and it is rather compelling for me, I have to admit), just imagine...

London...

In the 1840s, a tough-minded reformer called Edwin Chadwick dramatized the plight of the poor by publication of a large number of official reports on the state of public health in the unsanitary cities and especially in London. Chadwick's studies were followed over the next half-century by a large number of detailed, well-documented exposés, of which the most influential was the seventeen-volume Life and Labour of the People in London (1886-1903) of Charles Booth, a philanthropic Liverpool shipowner.
Epidemics of cholera, typhus, "consumption" and other undefined maladies plagued the City over at least four centuries. Edwin Chadwick, a sanitary reformer of the era, struggled with upper class apathy toward these horrible conditions. Chadwick explored sewers, questioned slum dwellers, and turned out hundreds of reports to the Commission. He experimented with the benefits of obtaining pure water from lakes and reservoirs, rather than the fetid Thames. His Public Health Act ultimately reversed the tide of death. He chastised residents of London for defying the Law of Moses, often pointing out that it "forbade even an open camp be defiled with human ordure, and expressly ordained that it should be deposited at a distance and immediately covered with soil." Prince Albert died of typhoid fever, a reminder that even the highest in society could not ignore the debased conditions of sanitation and housing in which the mass of London's population lived. Buckingham Palace was connected with the poorer districts of London by its sewers and it shared their water supply. So, the aristocracy of the new mansions of Belgravia or Regent's Park were prey to the epidemics of typhus, cholera, typhoid, and febrile influenza that swept the poorer districts.

It could be you - and if you read the article series here, you can see how much effort on some people's part it took for change to happen here - and that was in a country that HAS money and that isn't beholden to richer siblings in filthy debt. 2.4 billion people don't have access to adequate sanitation.

[CAFOD World Gifts, www.worldgifts.cafod.org.uk ]

Emergency Shelter; £12

2005-10-29T13:38:00.000Z

Gujurat - Earthquake

Darfur - Genocide

Asia - Tsunami

A tent. Blankets. Plastic Sheeting. Mosquito Netting.

Imagine being delighted that you had the above to sleep in.
I find that gutting.
Imagine being delighted that your children had the above to sleep in.
I find that gut-wrenching.

Over a billion people in our world don't have any decent, basic shelter.
If hey had the above to sleep in...
...they'd find it better than what they have now.

[ CAFOD World Gifts, www.worldgifts.cafod.org.uk ]

School Starter Kit; £7

2005-10-29T13:15:00.000Z

I love the Simpsons - Matt Groenig is a genius!
Little things like the different sofa moments, or like the different mantras Bart is inscribing reluctantly on the class board each time the opening credits run show the attention that goes into making The Simpsons such a universally admired programme.

Bart probably wouldn't thank you for this particular present (although Lisa might), but a lot of children and their families all over the world would.

1 in 5 adults cannot read or write.

98% of these live in developing countries

2/3 of them are women.

I've been able to read since I was two or three, so I can't imagine or remember what it's like not to be able to read - especially now as so much communication is done in a textual medium rather than spoken (although 90% of the world's population has never made a telephone call. Mind you, over 2 billion people, that's around 40% of all of us, still can't access electricity and it's been around for about 200 years now).

Knowlege is power - and it's the poorest and most ground down of the world's population who need the power that knowlege is. Pens, pencils, jotters, school-bags, uniforms, chalk, and (yes) even boards are some of the basic tools in this 'starter kit' that make an inestimable contribution to teachers' teaching and so to pupils' learning.

Bart Simpson would probably be delighted at the thought of being one of the world's 110million children of primary-school age who don't go to school. Nepal sees 44% of its children complete primary school - Angola only has 4% get through to that level. Common ground between these two? War & War. Makes you groan audibly, doesn't it?

[ CAFOD World Gifts, www.worldgifts.cafod.org.uk ]

100 Fruit Tree Saplings; £30

2005-10-29T12:54:00.000Z

What is it with art and fruit? Can't they think of anything more original to compose their 'still lifes' from? This one's by Cezanne - and it's very nice - but it's not exactly exciting, is it?

The real thing is far more engaging, particularly for farmers like these, previously struggling to eke out a living from enset plants (aka 'false bananas').

(wikipedia's entry for Ensete plants).

False bananas aren't very valuable or nutritious - but with fruit trees like the ones in this prezzie families can work their own land and earn what they would working on someone else's, with the chance for this income to grow, and with the chance to be the proprietor and to use the fruits of their labour (!) for themselves as well as for sale.

Over half of humanity live on less than 2 US dollars every day. That's about £1.13 at today's exchange-rate. That's actually quite embarassing, isn't it? Any increase in an income like that has got to be a good thing.

[ Send a Cow catalogue, www.sendacow.org.uk ]

1 Month of an Extension Worker's time; £100

2005-10-29T10:22:00.000Z

My cousin David, my friend Kelly and I had a thing going with the "Friends" series. It used to be shown in the UK on Fridays on Channel 4. In the theme tune there's a clappy bit. We had a pledge that wherever we were when we were watching Friends on Fridays that we'd join in with that, so we'd be doing it together. Are you thinking "get a life" now?

I don't know what I'd do without friends - they're amazing, especially my friends! Extra-special mentions in that line need to be made of Liz & Janet - even though it's probably more than my life's worth to do so. Oh well. It's my blog and I assert my authoritah!

God's a community of three-in-one, so given that He made us in His image, it's not surprising that humans tend to seek out other human beans for support, help and friendship. Sometimes that support needs to come from a person trained in a specific skill, as we've all got different gifts to help each other out with. That's what Eustache, mentioned here by Send a Cow as their example Extension Worker, is - a skilled supporter and friend.

( Send a Cow catalogue, www.sendacow.org.uk )

Rwandan Orphan's 3-week Residential Training Course (farming); £100

2005-10-29T09:37:00.000Z

"Education, education, education."
Phoney bLiar's most famous quote - hardly a grand oration that Churchhill would have been proud of, is it? Although our spinning PM didn't mean it as a reflection of education in life, it is - past, present, future - education runs through it all, whether formal or informal, conscious or subconscious - each time feeds from and affects the others.
Training is the most basic example of sustainable development - and it's a sad indictment on all of us that public aid to 'development' has plummeted by 29% over the last ten years.

Send a Cow has a some important tenets upon which its philosophy and ethic of giving rests, 'Pass it on' being one, and training being another. There's not much point in anyone giving me a car this Christmas (stick with the stuff on this blog-list, much better idea) because I can't drive. In the same way, if someone gave me a farmyard, it would take a substantial amount of trial and error before I managed to make it work and start generating income. Stands to reason that most people benefit from training - especially young people like the Rwandan orphans that this present would benefit. They've lost their parents, but they still have their own lives to keep going.

(Send a Cow catalogue, www.sendacow.org.uk )

Beehive; £40

2005-10-29T09:02:00.000Z

Even the word 'bee' is a bit off-the-wall. They're fascinating little beasties with their collective conscience and their Three Muskateers-like "all for one and one for all" approach to their lives. Bumble bees are reputed not to be able to fly (an urban exaggeration, see this article), and should they defend themselves by using their sting, they die, torn apart by their faild deterrent.

They're useful though - transporting pollen about with them as they go about their frenetic nectar-searching business, fertilising plant after plant without even knowing that they're multitasking. Back at home they make wax, honey and honeycomb as they all pull together to feed their queen's hungry children. I'm amazed by their clear delineation of jobs - nursery bees, worker bees, queen, mating bees - and the fact that they're physically suited for the jobs (something to do with what the nanny-bees feed them?) that they'll spend their lives doing. I wonder whether they do hear a hive mind in their heads, or whether they just have a really strong sense of community and of 'doing unto their neighbour'. Humbling and intriguing all at once.

We don't have that, we humans. If the 225 richest families in the world gave just 4% of their wealth that could give access to basic nutrition, health care and education for the whole world.
Not just interesting buzzy things, bees - maybe they could do seminars in care for the community for us.

Not just interesting to this couple too; honey = money for them - as well as its well-known health benefits & the fact that it tastes nice!
[ Send a Cow catalogue, www.sendacow.org.uk ]

Cane Rat; £25

2005-10-29T08:36:00.000Z

The genus Thryonomys, also known as cane rats, is a genus of rodent found in Africa south of the Sahara. They are eaten in some African countries and are a pest species on many crops.

Cane rats

Fossil Range: Late Pliocene - Recent
Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Thryonomyidae, Pocock, 1922
Genus: Thryonomys Fitzinger, 1867
Species:
Thryonomys gregorianus (Lesser Cane Rat)
Thryonomys swinderianus (Greater Cane Rat)

( From Wikipedia )

Any idea about Cane Rats? Even Wikipedia only has a stub for its entry about them. Their relative obscurity (here in the UK, anyway) begs the question "Why? Who would want a weird rodent anyway?"

Apparently people do! They're supposed to be tender and tasty to eat - something of a delicacy - so they can provide income for poorer people while at the same time helping to reduce demand for illegal bush meat, so protecting species who need it, and meaning that environment-crunching hunting methods don't get used as much - so the environment doesn't get crunched as much. Simple, but effective; and all from a weird wee ratty thing.

[ Send a Cow ratalogue, www.sendacow.org.uk ]

Three Sheep; £35

2005-10-29T00:29:00.000Z

Our God, heaven cannot hold Him - nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away when He comes to reign.
In the bleak midwinter a stable place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty, Jesus Christ.

Enough for Him, Whom cherubim worship night and day,
Breastful of milk and a mangerful of hay;
Enough for Him, Whom angels fall before,
The ox and ass and camel which adore.

Angels and archangels may have gathered there,
Cherubim and seraphim thronged the air;
But His mother, only, in her maiden bliss,
Worshipped the beloved with a kiss.

What can I give Him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.

Sheep have been tagging along with the history of Christmas since the prophets' previews. They pop up in all sorts of unexpected places - Abraham's ram, taking the place of Isaac on the altar, Jesus talking about being the Good Shepherd and us his sheep, the Passover lamb which prefigured God's Passover Lamb, Jesus; Lamb of God.
Agnus Dei.

Sheep aren't the brightest of animals. They're rather dirty a lot of the time, and they look slightly pathetic a lot of the time. An odd thing for the Creator of the universe to call Himself - the Ancient of Days, the Lion of Judah, the Great 'I AM'... all of those have the ring of Someone who is powerful and in charge. Funny then that the Lamb of God should be such a commonly used title - how many of the great composers' masses don't have an "Agnus Dei" movement?

This present isn't in the league of gift that the Lamb of God is to humanity - nothing could be - but the three sheep given to this family have brought joy and blessing to them. Better harvests promising better financial returns, allowing children to go to school and be given an education. Three dim-looking sheep. It's not the packaging that counts really, is it?

[ Send a Cow catalogue, www.sendacow.org.uk ]

Four Rabbits & Hutch-Building Materials; £50

2005-10-29T00:02:00.000Z

I just couldn't resist this picture - jack-rabbits flooding a road in a little american town called Twin Falls. It does illustrate the old 'breeding like rabbits' cliche quite well.
Rabbits' breeding power is one reason why the Lesotho lady here will be pleased to have a hutch full of bunnies. If they produce 10 kittens in a litter she can collect a fiver for each one - considering a farmhand's daily wage there is apparently only about £1, that goes forth, increases & multiplies rather well.

When they're not breeding they seem to be just as helpful - providing fertiliser for her ground, which even helps during drought times.
Most british people probably don't want to go into the idea of how a cute little rabbit can provide protein on a plate... but it's not a bad thing. It's actually rather a good thing, even if (like me) you can't swallow your background enough not to feel a little bit sad for them. Can't exactly begrudge it - in the rich countries of the world (that's only 20% of the human family), we manage to eat 45% of all the meat and fish that are eaten throughout the world. I think they deserve a better share than that.

[ Send a Cow catalogue, www.sendacow.org.uk ]

Flock of Poultry; £60

2005-10-28T23:35:00.000Z

I thought it was rather sad when the Aardman archive warehouse burnt down. All those hours of work, all that expression of talent, melted into an ex-plasticineic goo.
Nick Park - the daddy of Wallace, Gromit, the chickens on the left, the creatures interviewed for Creature Comforts - would have been excused for being disappointed and angry, but when the press asked him for his comment he surprised them.

it was "dreadful" news for the company, but in the light of other world events, "it's not a big deal".

He's right, of course - but there are places where a flock of poultry could be quite a big deal for some people.
Rwanda. It's sort of a place where you think of the whole country as being just a giant news-story, all to horrible to contemplate, but I suppose there are people there laughing right now, people there crying, people there praying, people there working... Their lives go on, somehow. I can't quite imagine how.

The family "Send a Cow" talk about here are an example. One woman, bringing up 6 children - 5 of them orphaned during the gut-wrenching genocidal people-culling that put the name of Rwanda on the media map (although can you point it out on a map of Africa? I have to think about it for ages, and still get it wrong more often than not). As if that's not bad enough, she's got AIDS - another word that carries myriad spectres with it. She's not going to have the time to keep a herd of cattle - especially with no free schooling for all those children - but poultry (apart from our animated friends in the picture here) are rather less effort.

Eggs to eat and eggs to sell. Better diet, better health. It's got to be a start worth getting.

[ Send a Cow catalogue, www.sendacow.org.uk ]

A Pair of Goats; £125

2005-10-28T23:31:00.000Z

Imagine begging for sh*t.
Going around your neighbours asking, "Can you spare some manure?".
Doesn't exactly enhance your sense of dignity, does it?

A poor farming family in a hot, arrid country - maybe somewhere where the soil has been wizened by years of cash-crop fuelled rape - wouldn't necessarily have to imagine it. The richness that the soil can draw from the waste of a pair of goats can make a huge difference - a the woman in the example here testifies. Three times her usual crop is great - but the extra bonus that milk from the female has given has directly helped her daughter's health too.

It might not be the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff, but the grass must be feeling slightly greener for them.

[ Send a Cow catalogue, www.sendacow.org.uk ]