Is it crazy to buy a kid goat as a Christmas present for your parents?

For Christmas this year I decided to look for something different for my family in the UK.

I felt this year that I wanted the gifts to mean something, and that I also needed to give. There have been years when I have felt unable to give Christmas presents as I felt that giving gifts for the sake of giving them was failing to feel quite right when my family has lots of “stuff’” already.

So this year I was looking to be able to gift something that had meaning and was still in the spirit of gifting.

For my parents I bought them a kid goat from Must Have Gifts . This is a division of World Vision who arrange sponsorship for children in many parts of the world, and I have received much pleasure from sponsoring a child in an African country over the past 6 years.

The Kid Goat will be for a family in South Sudan and the Must Have Gifts Website explains:

South Sudan: Many families lost precious livestock when they were forced to leave their homes in South Sudan. Your gift of a kid goat not only provides milk and cheese, but also security as an extra source of income as it can be bred, sold or used for meat.

I chose a printed card, despite wanting to avoid unnecessary post and waste of paper resources; this seemed kinder to my parents who I felt would want to display it. For once it felt better to avoid imposing my view of recycling and waste of paper for cards on them.

Crazy ? Well probably, but it felt good.

Kiva Cards – the gift that keeps on giving

For both my sisters and their families I choose the Kiva Card, a gift that changes lives.

These were easily delivered by email saving paper and avoiding wasting valuable resources, although in the USA they area available printed and delivered, and in other countries you can print them yourself.

The gift card entitles the recipient to lend the $25 to an entrepreneur as part of a group of people funding a microfinance loan in an underdeveloped country.

This is a gift that keeps on giving as when the loan is repaid the recipient can lend the money again, which is the awesome power of a loan on Kiva and why I feel strongly about the value of Kiva in enabling people to alleviate their poverty by engaging in a small business activity.

You can find our more about Kiva or even join our lending team Kiva Malta.

Fiance and Kids

So it makes sense to extend this to my fiance and the kids right?

Now you must be crazy. The kids are having computer games, skateboards and the like, and the fiance; well that would be telling…..

Seasons greetings