Charitable Christmas Gift Ideas Through GFA World
When the Christmas season approaches, many people begin to consider charitable Christmas gift ideas. The season encourages generous giving and thoughts of charity and kindness. Through GFA’s charitable gifting catalog, you can find a special gift for someone who needs encouragement on the other side of the world.
GFA has worked in Asia since 1979 and more recently started ministry in Africa as well. We serve in parts of the world where the needs are greatest—those areas where people struggle with severe poverty. Many of these areas have generational poverty where people have suffered for several generations. This cycle continues unbroken until someone like you intervenes and helps provide a helpful hand through charitable gifting.
There are several charitable gift giving ideas available through GFA. Here are some of our favorites:
- Chickens – Chickens can make a significant impact on a family in need. Eggs can be eaten as a nutritious meal or sold at the market. Eggs can also be fertilized and hatched to increase the flock and start a small chicken farm.
- Goats – A pair of goats provide milk that can be turned into cheese, soap and other products. Goats can also be bred to increase the flock or sold at the market.
- Pigs – Pigs breed quickly, and a small pig farm can make a large difference to a family as piglets are raised to be sold or to increase the farm size.
Winter Clothing
- Blankets – A warm blanket can protect people from deadly cold. In many regions we serve, homes are not insulated. You can provide a blanket large enough to protect an entire family from inclement temperatures.
- Winter Clothing – In many areas of Asia, winters can be harsh. Those temperatures hinder villagers from work and also missionaries and pastors from their ability to safely minister. Providing warm clothing can be a great help.
Community Items
- Outdoor Toilets – When people don’t have access to a toilet, they are forced to relieve themselves outside in the open. This is often a safety concern, and it also contaminates the water supply. Private toilets can be installed to protect the dignity and health of the community.
- Jesus Wells – These wells provide pure, clean water in areas where women and children may need to walk miles for this daily necessity. Wells, maintained by the local church, provide convenient access to safe water that is free from disease.
- Holy Scriptures – You can gift God’s Word to people who are hungry to read it. Your gift will enable people to grow closer to God and learn from His Scriptures.
- Tracts – Literature that includes the Good News can be read and then passed on to another person. It’s the gift that keeps on giving!
- Bicycle – Yes, this is an important item! This form of transportation allows GFA-supported national missionaries to share the Good News in new areas!
- Church buildings – GFA is establishing churches where there are none, including in remote locations. These types of charitable Xmas gifts make an eternal difference.
- Women’s literacy – When women learn to read, they are instantly qualified for higher-paying jobs outside of the day-laborer realm.
- Vocational Training – Tailoring classes or candle-making instruction help women get better jobs so they can provide for their families.
When people like you select from these charitable Christmas gift ideas, real people are helped in practical ways.
Taden[1] is a great example of how a Christmas gift can change the life of a family in need. A day laborer, he struggled to provide even the basics for his family. “I couldn’t afford a very nice life for my family,” he recalls, “and I used to feel very angry at myself at times, very sad with myself because of the situation I was in.”
Taden’s pastor saw that he needed help and arranged for him to receive a cow through a gift campaign at GFA. “We were really overjoyed,” Taden recalls, “because we did not have anything in our house to call our own. But we felt that if we got the cow, we could really improve our lives.”
The cow gave birth and began producing milk. Taden and his family began selling the excess milk, and that money helped them meet their basic needs. In fact, the milk sales began producing enough money that they could send their children to school, something that had seemed out of the realm of possibility before. The cycle of poverty was starting to break! Later, Taden decided to sell one of his cows and buy two goats. Those goats soon gave birth, and Taden was able to earn as much from selling the two kids as he used to make in six months of working! He could afford money for his kids’ clothes, as well as schoolbooks.
“I would like to thank those who have helped me get the cow as a gift,” he says. “My life has definitely been blessed 100 percent.”
Will you partner with us at GFA World by selecting an item from our Christmas Gift Catalog? A family in need will be truly thankful you considered these charitable Christmas gift ideas.
Learn more about GFA World’s Christian missionary work overseas
[1] Holt, Palmer. “A surprising antidote to world poverty: Farm animals. November 30, 2021. https://www.gfa.org/special-report/solutions-poverty-farm-animals.