Holiday Gifts that Help Refugees - Guide #1

by Una M. · 2009-12-14 03:49:00 UTC
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If you are planning to buy gifts for friends, family, or colleagues this holiday season, consider giving your loved ones some of these gifts that support organizations assisting and advocating on behalf of the 42 million people displaced by armed conflict worldwide.

The International Rescue Committee

The International Rescue Committee is one of the world's largest and best-regarded humanitarian organizations. In other words, an all-star relief agency.  Established at the suggestion of Albert Einstein (himself a refugee), the IRC has provided life-saving assistance and protection to millions of refugees and internally displaced persons since 1933.

Donate as little as $18 dollars to the IRC, and you can pay for a mosquito net for a family of three.

If you're flush with cash --or your organization is looking for a socially-conscious alternative to the annual office grab-bag tradition-- a $5,000 donation can outfit an entire life-saving maternal health clinic in a conflict zone where pregnant women and new mothers have no access to medical care.

As a bonus, the IRC will throw in its eye-catching yellow-and-arrows logo tote bag with every donation of $50 or more. With a four star rating from Charity Navigator (the highest any organization can receive), you can be confident the IRC will use your donation where it's most needed.

Amnesty International USA

Amnesty USA advocates on behalf of refugees and asylum seekers abroad and in the US. It campaigns against the arbitrary detention of asylum seekers, and for the protection of socially vulnerable refugee groups, such as victims of gender-based violence. In recent years, Amnesty USA has been especially vocal in its advocacy on behalf of Iraqi refugees and IDPs.

You can buy everything from stationary to books and music to clothing in Amnesty's online store. How about giving the human rights activist or international law student in your life this unisex top printed with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?

Oxfam America

Oxfam provides humanitarian assistance and development to conflict-affected communities in places like the Democratic Republic of Congo and Gaza. A $24 donation to Oxfam America this holiday season can purchase a batch of manure that will increase the vegetable yield of a family's garden. So, give a shit in the name of someone you love.

(Hint: this is an especially appropriate gift for the "person who has everything.")

You can check out all of Oxfam's gifts here.

Know a great gift that benefits a refugee assistance or advocacy organization and don't see it here? Send me a tip at Una (at) Change (dot) org.

In the next gift guide - gifts that brighten the lives of refugees resettled in your own community.

[Photo 1: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jillclardy/ / CC BY-SA 2.0]

Una M.
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