By: Cassandra Clifford
Note: This post reflects the views of the author, not those of the Foreign Policy Association. The author is an independent contributor.
Have you been bitten by the gift giving bug this season? Was my last post, Holiday Wish List, not enough to keep you busy, or satisfy your unquenchable need to help underprivileged children. Well then here are 20 more ways for you to help make a child's life better this year. Why not pick a few off the list, or pick one that you can make a year long project!
- Donate new blankets to kids in homeless shelters at projectnightnight.org.
- Shop or donate to thrift stores such as, Out of the Closet, which helps support the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.
- Before you shop online, go to goodshop.com. Then buy from participating retailers and the site donates a portion of your purchase to the charity of your choice.
- Spend an hour or two a week helping an immigrant learn English (check out literacyvolunteers.org).
- Donate old cell phones to victims of domestic violence for emergencies (go to ncadv.org and click "donate").
- Vaccinate 50 children around the world against deadly diseases such as meningitis, measles or polio with a $50 donation at doctorswithoutborders.org.
- Provide a month of care for a child rescued from sexual slavery for just $30 at sharedhope.org.
- Find projects that help children in your neighborhood at dosomething.org.
- Make a $10 donation to freethechildren.org and a special matching-funds program will turn it into $100 worth of medical supplies for kids around the world.
- Mentor an at-risk teen online at icouldbe.org.
- Help an aspiring student pay for college at scholarshipamerica.org.
- Send a DVD or video game to hospital-bound kids via childsplaycharity.org.
- Helping students, ages 6-18, with expository and creative writing at 826national.org.
- Look at your medical history, then donate to a cause that could help your loved ones, be it the American Heart Association (americanheart.org), Susan G. Komen for the Cure (komen.org) or another charity.
- Train your dog to be a therapy dog for children in hospitals at tdi-dog.org.
- Sell gifts you don't need through eBay's Giving Works program (givingworks.ebay.com), which earmarks a percentage of sales for the charities of your choice.
- Give to donorschoose.org; a small donation can help create cozy reading nooks for underfunded classrooms.
- Upgrade your laptop; worldcomputerexchange.org will send your old one to a child in one of 61 countries.
- Give blood and save a child's life at givelife.org.
- Become a bone marrow donor at www.marrow.org, it could be a child's life you save.
