Holiday Gifts Come From Away

Investigate presents that help others and the world.

• SERRV (serrv.org/category/gifts)
• UNICEF (market.unicefusa.org)
• Heifer (heifer.org/marketplace)
• World Wildlife Fund (gifts.worldwildlife.org)
• National Wildlife Federation (shopnwf.org)
• kiva micro loans (kiva.org)
• Samaritan's Purse (samaritanspurse.org/operation-christmas-child)
• Arbor Day Foundation (shop.arborday.org)

Aspirational Holiday Gifts

My grandfather believed in aspirational rather than age- appropriate gifts. Of all the holiday and birthday presents I received while growing up, the one I most vividly remember was the fountain pen and mechanical pencil set my grandfather gave me, when I was five. My initials even were embossed on both the pen and pencil in gold.

     What are some aspirational gifts that would inspire young people to learn more about the world? A globe is my favorite. It shows the world is round and countries are their correct relative sizes to each other, unlike on some two-dimensional maps, where Greenland is as big as Africa. Globes show the world has more than 200 countries, three oceans, and seven continents, one of which is frozen. A child can put a sticker on where he or she was born and lives.

     If a child already owns a globe, there is the Atlas of Animal Adventures that shows where animals live. Children can go from the book to the globe to find the country habitats of their favorite animals.

     Even in this digital age of email, children feel very grown up, when they receive mail. With a subscription to National Geographic Kids (shop.nationalgeographic.com/ category/magazines/national-geographic-kids), they receive a magazine nearly every month. Adults also will look forward to the world's fun facts, activities, photos, and games in each issue.

     Little Passports (littlepassports.com) is another way to give children mail every month. Each mailing provides activities, souvenirs, letters from fictional pen pals, and other fun ways to learn about a particular country.

     Presenting a child with a $25 kiva (kiva.org) gift card enables a child to loan someone in one of 80 countries the funds to improve a life. With the help of an older person, a child can scroll through the faces of people who need just a little help to plant a crop, open a store, or build something. And it is up to the child to decide where to offer his or her loan. They then receive email messages telling the amounts of every loan repayment.

     And finally, to advance a student's budding interest foreign languages or foreign travel, I'd suggest Other Wordly: Words Both Strange and Lovely From Around the World  by Yee-Lum Mak and illustrated by Kelsey Garrity-Riley and the series: The 500 Hidden Secrets of London, The 500 Hidden Secrets of Paris, and The 500 Hidden Secrets of Barcelona.

     None of these aspirational gifts will choke children under three (I hope), but they will give them a head start in feeling comfortable in the world where they will spend their lives.

   

A Catholic and Communist Work to Overcome Two Countries' Major Difficulties

Vietnam and Brazil are not just accepting the status quo. With different approaches, two individuals are tackling problems and working to improve the lot of their citizens.

     Using initial capital provided by an organization based in the Netherlands, Sister Mary Nguyen Thi Phuc, a member of Vietnam's religious order, the Secular Institute of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, designed a credit and savings program for women infected with HIV/AIDS. Using a $223 loan, a woman can start a small business, e.g. by buying a motorbike to transport paying customers or by opening a stand to sell soft drinks, coffee, or fruit, that can generate enough money to provide for herself and pay student fees for her children.

     Borrowers are given 10 months to repay their loans with interest to a banking account. Interest is used to assist others who have accidents, illnesses, or lack funds to pay for a funeral. The microloan program has the added benefit of inspiring other women to overcome their difficulties.

     In Brazil, the State of Maranhao on the Atlantic Ocean in the northeastern part of the country has both dense Amazonian forests and a vast desert-like expanse of white sand dunes. Its newly elected governor, Flavio Dino, although a member of the Communist Party, is a pro-free market proponent who recognizes the private sector generates wealth. He united members of opposition parties and governs with a vice governor from a pro-business party. His first order of business was to cut palace expenses by eliminating or reducing the budget for champagne, caviar, lobsters, and the security staff.

     Although Brazil is in the midst of its worst recession since the 1930s, Maranhao, the country's second poorest state, is determined to rise above Brazil's corruption (See the earlier post, "Warning to Students: Don't Cheat."), declining commodity exports (See the earlier post, "Falling Commodity Prices Spur Diversification in Emerging Markets."), and political turmoil. This toxic combination is threatening to cause Brazil's overall economy to decline 3% this year.

   

It Takes a World to Raise a Child

When I saw umbrollers in London over 40 years ago, I couldn't wait to get back to the U.S. to tell my sister who just had a baby how easy they were to maneuver and collapse compared to traditional strollers. Since then, many U.S. parents also have adopted the baby slings and wraps that working mothers have worn when they were taking care of babies in Mexico, Peru, Ethiopia, Korea, China, Japan, and elsewhere. And what mother with a new baby wouldn't want to visit one of Japan's cat cafes? There, she and her baby could be among the customers, many who can't have pets at home, who come to talk to, play with, and chill out among cats while they drink tea. Hillary Clinton once wrote that it takes a village to raise a child; perhaps it takes a world.

     As an international marketing student at American University in Washington, D.C., I had a professor who told us one of the benefits multinational corporations enjoy is access to new products and ideas in one country that they can adapt for use in other countries. In these days, even without world travel, mothers have online access to global innovations.  To give just two examples, there is Internet information on international adoption and crowdfunding websites that finance or even find volunteers for their projects.

     On trendwatching.com, I was reminded of how women have expanded the yard sale concept to become sellers on eBay, Amazon, and other platforms. Kids in Nigeria, like they could in other countries, now play local versions of Monopoly. According to trendwatching.com, the "City of Lagos" version has local locations and, to reflect Nigeria's challenges, chance cards that say things like, "Pay a fine for attempting to bribe a law enforcement agent."

     In my earlier blog post, "Hope for the Future," you may have seen how the Grameen Bank and Kiva have helped women start businesses to support their families and finance their children's educations by providing micro-loans. When I read on trendwatching.com that the idea of selling meals through Thuisafgehaald in the Netherlands is spreading to the US, UK, Germany, and Sweden, I realized, with or without a micro loan, that mothers who are good cooks have an opportunity to specialize in selling nutritious home-cooked, peanut- and gluten-free, birthday party, and other types of meals.

     Mothers who do volunteer work for child-centered, not-for-profit organizations, like the March of Dimes, might be able to adopt a version of what trendwatching.com reports "The Exchange" is doing in South Africa. Consumers only are allowed to shop for its clothes and accessories donated by designers if they first sign up with an Organ Donor Foundation.

     T-shirts proclaim the slogan, "Changing More Than Diapers," on mothers who visit momsrising.org. Though mainly focused on the United States, the site promotes activities mothers around the world could adapt to work for fair wages, flexible workplace schedules, maternity and paternity leave, better childcare, and environmental health.

     The site, vitalvoices.org, already identifies women's issues, works toward solutions, fosters connections across international boundaries, and awards progress. On vitalvoices.org, viewers can see how women in Africa increase the continent's economic potential, how Latin American women strive for gender equality, and how female leaders in Eurasia are combating human trafficking. Malala Yousafzai, the young Pakistani woman who recovered from being shot in the head because she wants girls to attend school, currently is featured on the site.

     Making international connections that foster innovation in education is the aim of the WISE (World Innovation Summit for Education) Educational Leadership Program in Qatar. The leaders in education from the more than 100 countries who attend WISE summits discuss ideas about funding, curricula, assessment, and improving the quality of education, ideas that could suggest new directions worth considering by parents, guardians, and teachers around the world.