wfn.org | Nix Holiday Tchotchkes in Tough Economy and World Food Crisis

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

NIX THE HOLIDAY TCHOTCHKES IN TOUGH ECONOMY AND WORLD FOOD CRISIS,
URGES HUMANITARIAN AGENCY

New Church World Service Alternative Gifts Catalogue Offers 'Life Tech'
Gifts Like Solar Ovens, Wells, Literacy Classes, Micro-Credit Business
Loans for World's Poorest

NEW YORK, NY- SEPT. 5, 2008- In a tight economy, holiday gifts that
also help fight poverty and the world food crisis can go a lot farther
than tchotchkes or yesterday's tech trinkets destined for "re-gifting"
or recycling. This season's Best Gift catalogue from humanitarian agency
Church World Service lets holiday shoppers honor their gift recipients
by giving alternative gift donations that fund tools, technologies,
training, and supplies to help struggling people around the world rise
out of poverty and become self-sufficient.

Alternative gifts aren't new, but a sampling from this year's free Best
Gift catalogue from global CWS shows fresh imagination and scope,
including everything from solar cooking stoves, wells and drip
irrigation systems, to training in disaster preparedness, microcredit
loans for women, baby chicks and water buffalos, and rehydration therapy
for small children at risk of death from diarrhea.

"So many people in the U.S. are feeling the pressure of high food and
energy costs, a slow economy and the mortgage crisis," says Church World
Service Executive Director and CEO John McCullough. "People are thinking
twice about the high cost of the usual masses of sweaters and gadgets
that often don't get used. We're encouraging people to give meaning, not
just stuff. It's time to start thinking in terms of 'life tech.'"

A CWS socially conscious gift from the Best Gift catalogue funds one of
the Church World Service development program areas related to the gift,
such as agriculture and livestock, emergency and disaster preparedness,
care for vulnerable children, water and environment, or womenâ??s
empowerment.

Give the environmentalist on your list the $62 gift of a solar stove -
destined for families like Tibetan farmers in Qinghai Province who now
are converting to sustainable sources of clean energy rather than
cooking with animal dung.

In honor of a conscientious "chop wood, carry water" friend, a $15 gift
can give ten jerry cans that each hold five gallons of fresh water to
women and girls who daily walk miles to fetch water for their families.

For the sports fan on you list, give a $10 soccer ball to help build
community among displaced youths living in camps in Darfur.

For $10, give a gift that multiplies: a pair of rabbits to farmers like
those in drought-affected Zimbabwe.

A $25 literacy class gift helps one student such as those in the 8,500
child-headed households that CWS is assisting in its Giving Hope program
in Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya.

In the name of a workaholic colleague, give a $22 beehive to people
like the indigenous farmers in Argentina's Gran Chaco who're making
enough money selling honey to buy food and clothes for their families.

For those who want to dig a little deeper, a $30 gift will help drill a
shallow borehole well for a rural community that doesn't have access to
clean water.

Gardeners on your list will respond to a $50 gift of drip irrigation
system piping-which helps people like Andrés Avlino Castro and his
family in Guatemala succeed with more productive, sustainable
agriculture techniques.

And then there's half share in a water buffalo for $100 (which half is
up to you, says CWS)-- the low-carbon-footprint pickup truck alternative
that hauls produce to market and brings profits back home for struggling
farm families worldwide.

Pay tribute to the entrepreneur on your list with a $100 micro-credit
loan-that helps a women's group jumpstart a business enterprise.

Or, the $155 it costs to pay a lawyer's salary for a week is a unique
gift that can make a difference for indigenous people like those in
Latin America's Gran Chaco region now battling to
regain legal title to
their ancestral lands.

Church World Service suggests that community and faith groups organize
church fairs or holiday markets to feature alternative gifts that put
meaning into holiday gift giving for children and adults.

To help with the planning, CWS offers a free Alternative Holiday Market
Packet, a resource for groups or congregations that want to promote an
alternative to a consumer-oriented observance of the holidays. The
packet contains tips on organizing an Alternative Holiday Market, a
promotional poster, reproducible gift vignettes, and a copy of the Best
Gift Catalog.

Best Gift catalogs and Alternative Holiday Market packets can be
ordered at (800) 297-1516 or viewed online at www.cwsbestgifts.org.
Gifts may be ordered by mail, telephone or online.

At work in 80 countries worldwide, Church World Service is a relief,
sustainable development and refugee assistance agency supported by
public donations, grants and by 35 Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican
denominations in the United States.

Media Contacts:

Lesley Crosson, Church World Service, (212) 870-2676,
lcrosson@churchworldservice.org
Jan Dragin - 24/7 - (781) 925-1526, jdragin@gis.net

> ###