the gift

Mothers' Day, on the second Sunday in May in Australia, has reminded me.  I look at all the pressure retailers place on families for days like this and would love to see it stripped back to basics. It's not to everyone's taste, but consider buying mum something that could mean a whole lot more.  

• Oxfam do Oxfam Unwrapped - buy a goat for $38.  It'll help to give a family a livelihood, or milk.
  A Lutheran long-drop loo - $60 will get a loo somewhere like Sudan and make a massive improvement to santiation, via Australian Lutheran World Service.
• At CARE $20 buys a blackboard to help teach and improve children's education or $125 will train a woman to sew so she can start to support herself.
• UNICEF have a wide range of gifts sorted into categories such as Mums & Babies and Health & Nutrition.
• I've mentioned Kiva in a recent post, but with the Aussie dollar so good against the US dollar less than $25 will get a gift card and mum can choose who she'd like to help.
• Or try a website like charity gifts where there are a number of organisations from whom you can choose gifts.

I'm sure a lot of mums/mams/moms would love it if she got to spend some time with you and had a little fun.