Holiday shoppers can make donations to projects provided through Alternative Gifts International, an organization that provides life-sustaining gifts of food, educational support, tools, resources, medical care and hope to people in need.
Since 1994, the Grace community has supported giving to worthy causes around the world and has increasingly added local organizations to help those in need closer to home. This year’s local organizations include Fessenden House and San Andres Community Center in Yonkers, Rural & Migrant Ministry of Poughkeepsie, Bravehearts/M.O.V.E NY foster care and the Hastings Food Pantry. Gift buyers contribute and receive a holiday card with a description of the organization, which in turn can be given to people on their lists.
Gift options are $12, which buys five books for school libraries in Ethiopia; $28, which buys buys one safe mothering kit for women in South Sudan or Haiti; $38, which buys a health care worker in Africa a bicycle to get much needed meds to HIV/AIDS patients; $86 buys a wheelchair for the disabled; $55 teaches a woman in India how to sew to make a living; $11 plants 10 cocoa trees, which helps families in Belize, Honduras or Panama overcome poverty with a valuable cash crop; and $41 plants a "chocolate forest."
Click here to follow Daily Voice Rivertowns and receive free news updates.