CHRISTmas 2005

This blog is my Christmas 2005 suggestion list.

Rather than me accruing more 'stuff' I'd like you to direct presents 'to' me to others who really need them. There are a lot of suggestions here - you'll probably find something that inspires you somewhere!

Confused?

• Read through the "What to Do" on the right.
• Get to specific items by clicking their description in the "Navigation" bit on the right, under the "What to Do".
• Find general links to sites that may be of interest in the "Links" section on the right, under the "What to Do" and the "Navigation".

You can also view the suggestions list, arranged;

• by price
• by category
• by charity
• alphabetically

- by following these hypertext links.
Lists you get to from these links are hosted on my very first bloglet -
the "Captain's Blog".

Start a Business; £50

If I were going to be the person in charge of this business, you may be well advised to keep your hand in your pocket and not to invest. Fotrunately, I'm not the prospective M.D. - but someone who needs a leg-up to escape from the hole that poverty is would really appreciate the investment of faith in them. This present could go towards any sort of business - from farming to fashion - but whatever area it funds, the people it helps will appreciate it.

[ from Oxfam Unwrapped, www.oxfamunwrapped.com ]

Irrigate a Plot of Land for 1 Year; £100

This little girl's having a lovely time, feeling the water make the hose all wriggly and alive in her hands, listening to the fizz of the water as it streams out, watching the sparkle of the sunshine through the droplets, feeling the cool wetness when she taps her fingers onto the squirting jet, having a sense of power that she could turn the hose onto whoever is taking the picture. I wonder if she did or if she remained as sweet and angellic as she looks in the photo!

It's not as easy as connecting a hose and turning a faucett in much of the world - and you certainly wouldn't catch anyone wasting water like this there. Crop yields can be dramatically improved by efficient soil irrigation systems, and Oxfam's expertise in this means that it can help make a big difference to the output and income of small farms. This present will irrigate someone's plot for a whole year. When it rains here, we all forget how fortunate we are that it does so so regularly.

[ from Oxfam Unwrapped, www.oxfamunwrapped.com ]

Farmer's Kit; £45

Even kids' colouring-book pictures of jolly dungaree-clad farmers usually include tools. It's pretty hard to work the ground without some sort of hardware.

With these farmers' kits, Oxfam provide wheelbarrows, pitchforks, seeds and training to help people to make the most of their land so that they can not only feed themselves, but make a profit too by selling their produce.

The obvious song does beg to be sung though - so, all together now; "Old Mac-do-nald had a farm..."

[from Oxfam Unwrapped, www.oxfamunwrapped.com ]

Calf; £32

Moo.


I don't suppose Oxfam will be sending any of these cattle anywhere, but heilan' coos are just such funky-looking animals that the picture had to be of them!

Cows are great multi-taskers (bulls appear to be more mono-task oriented...) they make milk for a family's use, they produce enough milk for the family to sell some, they produce fertilizer (pat on the head there sweetie), they can be used as meat... and they reproduce and start it all over again (...that's the bull's role done then).

Mail a moo this Christmas!

[ from Oxfam Unwrapped, www.oxfamunwrapped.com ]

Donkey; £50

Shrek's donkey friend probably wouldn't be much use to your average farmer - but generally donkeys are great carriers and pullers of loads. This can help in ploughing or irrigation as well as in allowing farmers to carry more produce to market to sell. They work as passanger vehicles too - not just freight!

Donkeys are marked by their distinctive cross-shaped hair-ridges, lengendarily a relic reminder of Jesus's choice of an unridden colt as his steed upon which to enter Jerusalem on Palm Sunday while the people cried "Hosanna". Hosanna means 'God Save Us'.
Perhaps the gift of a donkey will be a part of God's answer to someone's prayer of "God, save us" this Christmas.

[ from Oxfam Unwrapped, www.oxfamunwrapped.com ]

10 Anti-Violence-Against-Women Campaigners' Sets; £20

In Saudi Arabia last April a female TV presenter allowed photographs of her battered and bruised face to be publicised in order to draw attention to domestic abuse.

Rather than having people respect her bravery in allowing her damaged face to be on public display and in highlighting domestic violence, she was hit by a shockwave of outrage from across the country. Conservative islamic leaders had felt that she had too 'western' an image, and had resented her for some time - but when she went public about her husband's physical attacks on her, their anger intensified and fed the fury from many of Saudi Arabia's people. Last week she had to run away from both her home in Jeddah and from her country. Having fled in 'mysterious circumstances' she is now in Paris, and has said that she is no longer safe in Saudi and that she will never go back.

Domestic violence like this is ignored, tolerated and even accepted in some places. With this present, 10 sets of materials to assist those attempting to change these attitudes will make their way to those who need them. These people's efforts start small then grow - and Oxfam has already seen evidence of progress in these projects in South Asia. We women in the UK enjoy the protection of society's attitudes now - although not necessarily throughout our history - and we owe it to other women around the world to help them, as our debt of gratitude to those in our history who helped us.

[from Oxfam Unwrapped, www.oxfamunwrapped.com ]

Build a Toilet; £30

This is the second lavatorially oriented item on my list - it's not something that comes up in conversation very often, for obvious reasons, but erecting this corrugated iron toilet could make a big contribution to improving health and hygiene in (for example) a refugee camp.
Cholera and typhoid thrive where there is inadequate sanitary provision. Build one of these and help make sure they don't!

[ from Oxfam Unwrapped, www.oxfamunwrapped.com ]

First Aid Kit; £30

If I'm going to stick something on myself, albeit to cover up a hole in my epidermus, I might as well make it fun and funky. I rather like amusingly decorated plasters - and have sported Bob the Builder, Winnie the Pooh, The Simpsons, Leopard Print, Spots, Stripes, Disney Princesses - on top of little grazes and cuts. I'm particularly fascinated by why on earth someone has designed plasters with pictures of sushi all over them (second row down, furthest left in the piccy), but they might as well.

It seems odd, then, when someone like me can wonder about whether their plaster matches their outfit (no, I don't by the way - but I could), while other people living in places where they are more likely to have a cut or scrape get infected than I am can't get even the most basic 'band aid' - no, Bob & Bono, not you... go and be old, irish and torturedly concerned somewhere else - a sticking plaster.

This first aid kit probably doesn't have plasters or bandages with Tweety Pie or the Superman logo all over them - but it will be appreciated and will do just as good a job in servicing basic first aid somewhere that needs it.

[ from Oxfam Unwrapped, www.oxfamunwrapped.com ]

Essential Hygiene Kit & Feed a Family for 1 Month; £37

Something happens. Something terriblePeople attack you and hundreds of other people you know
You have to leave home - run away
You end up exhausted in a refugee camp
A crowded pain-pit
Do you even feel as though you still have a life?
Have you any dignity or self esteem left?
Every meal is a struggle - even cleanliness on the most basic level is difficult
What if?


These pictures are all from Darfur - people crushed, blighted, and semi-forgotten by the rich in the world who could help them.
Pray for them.


This present isn't much in the grand scheme of things - but it could mean a huge amount to a family somewhere who needs it. Hygiene essentials and food for a month. Simple, basic - and I can't imagine ever feeling delighted to receive it. How decadently rich and lucky I am.

[ from Oxfam Unwrapped, www.oxfamunwrapped.com ]

Train a Health Worker; £38

Health visitors probably have a fairly different life in Haiti or in Sudan or in Bolivia to the one that a lady such as the one in the picture would have known. Training and refresher courses in health awareness, counselling and hygiene would be something that both would recognise though - even if the courses took pretty different forms.

Health visitors are in the frontline of preventative healthcare - always better to have avoided something completely than to have to sort it out after it's gone wrong, especially somewhere where medical resources may be very limited. This present will improve and save many lives - and the best part is that they won't even necessarily know what they've been saved from!

[ from Oxfam Unwrapped, www.oxfamunwrapped.com ]

Train a Midwife; £46

I love this picture - it's so calm without being saccharine, and the people are so real-looking without being very naturalistic.

Being a midwife must be stressful - ridiculously so at times, having the lives of a mother and a baby in your hands - but the flipside of that must be the chance to be there and be helping the miracle that is a new life being born every day of your working life. Amazing.

Since time immemorable women have had other women assist them at the birth of their children. This present will help train a midwife in an area where there may be few, or where traditional practises have not yet been enhanced by medical science's progress.

[ from Oxfam Unwrapped, www.oxfamunwrapped.com ]

Home Based Care Kit; £60

AIDS is ravaging Africa.
It is stigmatised even in rich and educated countries like the UK - so it's not a huge surprise, shocking though it is, that some African leaders try to deny that it exists. While politics rumble on irrelevantly over people's heads, blocking their access to treatment and swollen pharmaceutical multi-nationals dig their heels in to protect precious pennies that they wouldn't even notice - people have to live. The orphans and other dependants they leave behind, many also HIV-positive, have to live too.

This present is slightly more practical than wearing a red ribbon - not that there's anything wrong with that, raising awareness is a good thing - it's too easy to forget when a situation's not immediate for you. It provides kitchen bits, blankets, soap & stuff and will have a big impact on their general health. Eating properly, staying warm and keeping clean all have a huge impact, even though they're very small things.

[ from Oxfam Unwrapped, www.oxfamunwrapped.com ]

Safe Water for 100 People; £72

Over 25,000 people die every DAY from waterbourne diseases.Fred & Ginger = amazing tap
This present = amazing tap

They brought joy to millions and set toes tapping and people dancing all over the world.
This present can bring joy to a hundred people and set them dancing with delight.

Their generation of movies were harmless, sparkling with enthusiasm for the exciting advance that was moving talking singing pictures, and more often than not had happy endings
This present's water is harmless and sparkling clean - a striking advance on previous conditions - and will help ensure far more happy endings than would have been possible before.

how remarkable.
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers are like a water tank.
You read it here first...
;)

[ from Oxfam Unwrapped; www.oxfamunwrapped.com ]

Essential Medicines for a Village; £100

Sertraline, Migraleve, Asprin, Sudafed.
I don't even think about getting hold of them - I tootle down to Boots (via the doctor's for a prescription for the Sertraline), and buy them from the nice pharmacist. Easy. If they don't have enough, I go back later or go to another shop (like Superdrug, which I think is generally better than Boots and certainly has a better animal testing policy than even the Body Shop, but doesn't have an Advantage Card, which is very handy once you've amassed loads of points then spend them all on holiday/tour provisions!). Easy - if occasionally irritating!

For many people, even Paracetamol and Asprin are rare and pills that actually do anything are few and far between. This package stocks a village's medecine cabinet for 6 months. Not much else to say really - it's fairly self-explanatory!

[ from Oxfam Unwrapped, www.oxfamunwrapped.com ]

School Desk & Chair; £15

Arthur's Seat. It sits by Edinburgh awaiting a giant Arthur to return and place his giant arthurian posterior upon it in order to claim his missing chair.
This isn't exactly Arthur's seat - but it will be someone's, then someone else's the next school-year, someone else's the following one...

Arthur's seat appears not to be part of a set of chairs or of a dining-room suite, unless it has become seperated from the other gargantuan furniture that it matches. This chair comes with a desk too.

[ from www.oxfamunwrapped.com ]

Kit Out 5 School Students; £20

It's been more than 10 years since I left school. Even so, I still feel a pathetic frisson of delight when I see the Back to School logos going up all over the shops and know that I don't need to go and get a school uniform - and school shoes, which always took aaaaaaages because my feet were a 'treble-A' fitting (i.e. very very narrow. Humph).

My primary school's uniform standards were so colditz-strict that even the little teeny-tiny elastic bands in your hair had to be the right colour (navy, grey or black unless you were wearing a 'summer dress', the blue-checked ones of which we were allowed to wear after the Easter holidays and before the summer holidays only, when the hairbands were to be white).

The school I went to during my secondary years, Cademuir, wasn't nearly so strict on its uniform regulations - but it rejoiced in emerald green jumpers and navy skirts ) although we were allowed to wear kilts. I did - my Douglas (dress tartan) one. Green jumpers were still grim though!

Although uniforms were always a drag, getting the new term's stationery was always fun - even though my mum usually seemed to get me boring sensible stuff. One year, when I was going into primary 5 (i.e. aged 9ish), I persuaded her to get me a metal box of Lakeland colouring pencils. She said I'd have lost them all by half-term. I still have them. All of them. In the original colour order. Ha.

This present will give the same 'new start' thrill to 5 schoolchildren somewhere. As well as that, the jotters, pencils, rulers and schoolbag will make a big contribution to their ability to do their schoolwork and so to their learning. Bit of a result from some stationery really.

[ from Oxfam Unwrapped, www.oxfamunwrapped.com ]

Teach a Teacher; £30

As part of my job at Langham Arts I write lesson-plans and things for Prom Praise for Schools (pp4s). I love the challenge of finding an angle as a way into a topic, then crossing over the strands to make a web of cross-curricular teaching. At the same time as juggling these two dimensons, there's the added mental gymnastics of having to find ways of grabbing children who learn by doing, by reading, by reasoning, by physical bouncings, by touching, by singing... all sorts. Great, eh?

With this present, a teacher can get the change to have new ideas and new practises introduced into their approach to teaching. Bit of fresh idea-food to let your brain do some discussing's always a good thing - and an even better one to get some life into lesson planning. Janet and the other denizens of Langham Arts are fairly used to me popping in and asking them a weird question or telling them some odd little fact to see how they react and where conversation goes from that. Lucky them...

[from Oxfam Unwrapped, www.oxfmunwrapped.com ]

Learning Games; £60

Trivial Pursuit - a game in which players pursue each other around the board and flex their general knowledge. You hop your little empty pie around the board aiming at answering one questions on each of the 'big pie' wedge squares thereby collecting different coloured cheese-shapes, brown, blue, green, yellow, orange & pink to show a full and balanced cross-curricular grasp of trivia.

Games are a good way of learning - for kids as well as for grown-ups - and I do rather enjoy a good board-game. Don't know if I count as a grown-up though...

...anyway this pressie's the gift of helping a teacher to make learning fun, as it should be :)

[ Oxfam Unwrapped, www.oxfamunwrapped.com ]

Camel; £91

There can be few creatures who can portray such an impenetrable visage of disgusted supercilliousness as the camel. Every feature on a camel's face seems to have been constructed so that the beast can always show clearly that everything and anything that it could possibly encounter are so dreary, so insignificant, and so inferior as to hold no possible interest for the eyes beneath the long lazily blinking eyelashes. Apparently the spit from camels and llamas (a llama ate Liz's sandwich when she was little) tastes of yoghurt. They are apparently very accurate with their spittle-aim, and it is alleged that their range of fire is always slightly longer than you thought it was - regardless of what you thought it was. They're reputed to be stroppy, grumpy things - presumably spawning the phrase "got the hump" with their legendary diva temprament.

Camels, however, get away with their foibles because they are just so well-suited to their environment. The ships of the desert are perfectly designed for their environment, their bizzare capacity for time without food and water, their feet, even those sweeping proud eyelashes. That's why anyone would want one - although I'm sure they can be very nice when you get to know them.

[ Oxfam Unwrapped, www.oxfamunwrapped.com ]

A Month's Teaching for a Class & a Teacher's Kit; £82

The thought of the unearthly screeching sound effects in the above cartoon makes me cringe - but you can see why some teachers might be driven to such drastic methods! That or mark off time, counting the days and weeks until holiday time comes around again.

A Month is about a third of a term. A term is about a third of a school year
If three people decide that this is what they want to give me for Christmas, that'd be a whole term taken care of for one class.

Every term that children are in school they're learning - and the great thing about this gift-pack is that not only does it pay the teacher, it resources them too with plans and teaching aids as well as boards and other things. That means that the teachers are able to do what they do well, with the resources they need, so the time really counts for the children, and the teachers can get satisfaction from what they do. It's an upward spiral, really.

[Oxfam Unwrapped, www.oxfamunwrapped.com ]

School Dinners for 200 Children; £12

Threefers and Bogofs are very good things. They are also pretty magnetic - suddenly you are convinced that instead of one packet of cereal, you really should get 3. Bogoffs are even better - pick up an extra one of whatever you were going to get, and stock up.

I've never seen an offer as good as this one - 200 kids' meals for £12. And I think it'd be churlish not to take full advantage of it!

They're not going to be anything fancy or cordon bleu, but they'll be nutritious and filling - a good thing as they're sometimes the only meal that some kids will have in a day. It gives the parents an incentive to send their children to school - even the girls, who complete, on average, fewer years of education than boys do. That means less of them are literate, and that if they end up as lone mothers things are even harder for them than they would be if they could fill in forms, read signs, books, newspapers and other information, and help their children with their homework.

[Oxfam Unwrapped, www.oxfamunwrapped.com ]

Support for a Family At High Risk of Homelessness; £30 for 1 Month

The amazing and inspiring statue of Christ opens its arms to the city and the sea beyond. Dad said that you could see this majestic figure from everywhere in the city.

Despite the sculpture's all-seeing stony gaze, Rio de Janeiro (like much of Latin America) sees some crushing, grinding, unrelenting poverty. With this present {scroll to 9}, the towering image of Christ might be able to preside over one less homeless family who might have splintered under the crash of inpoverishment and added to the city's ranks of rough-sleeping adults and children, if the Toybox Charity are able to intervene and help them to paper over the cracks, maybe even repairing them altogether.

[ Toybox Charity, www.toyboxcharity.org ]

Vocational Training for an Ex-Homeless Teenager ; £53 for 1 Month / £12 for 1 Week

As Disney's dwarves sing and whistle on their commutes to and from work, I wonder how they ended up being miners. Who taught them? Who took on seven apprentices, each of whom has some aspect of their personality grotesquely and comically overexaggerated, and one of whom was a bit of a doofus? Someone must have taught them though - they wouldn't have just picked up a trade on their own.

With this present {scroll to 8}, a teenager who's been living on the street - or who is at risk of ending up homeless - can crank their future expectations up several gears. Whatever vocation they feel that they would like to pursue, Toybox can arrange for them to train in it. What a brilliant present. A life, a career, finances... fantastic - but real. Unlike our seven animated friends.

[ Toybox Charity, www.toyboxcharity.org ]

First Stage of Drug Detox for a Street- or At-Risk Child; £58

To most people; Superglue.
To some people, some street-children included; a drug.

Why? Why make things worse when they're already bad?

You can understand it though, wanting to have something to do with people, have something in common, have something to escape with, something to aim for in each day. This present {scroll to 7} would start a child on the way to not needing to use any kind of drugs or to abuse alcohol. From what I understand, detox programmes don't ever come with any sort of guarantee, but it's worth trying. It just might work, and that picture would be back to just being a strong adhesive again.

[ Toybox Charity, www.toyboxcharity.org ]

Medical Help for Street Children for a month; £16

If you live on the streets you're more likely to get ill or to be hurt than if you don't.
If you live on the streets it's harder to get medical treatment (or preventative medicine) than if you don't.
The combination of these two statements spells bad news for homeless people all over the world.

I never thought that I'd find a G.P. I actually liked - but my current one in Harrow has proved me wrong. He's got a huge brain (according to his practise colleagues too), he's a Christian, he doesn't patronise me, he fills in background & history on conditions and medications and he listens. Oh, and he's got a surreal twist that pops into apparency occasionally! Much as Fergus is a good doctor, even the best G.P. would struggle to care for homeless patients.

Their lifestyle, their lack of address, the difficulty in finding them, their poverty, the lack of trust in other people that many have - all conspire to strangle their health even more than it already has been by living rough. This present {scroll to 5}would allow people who have got a bond of trust, and who the street-children would feel able to seek out when needed, to help these vulnerable childre take care of their health. Prevention is always better than trying to cure something that's already there - and even now there are illnesses that elude medical science's ability to make them better.


Bianca lived on the streets all her life. Her experience of life was of being used and hurt at every corner. Yet she had a beautiful smile and a beautiful spirit. She was one of the first girls to move into one of the first homes opened by the charity for former street girls. She had come home. However, it soon became obvious she was very ill.

Bianca was one of a growing number of people in Guatemala with HIV, which developed into AIDs. Children have many medical problems when they come off the streets, from minor skin infections, to psychiatric problems which are dealt with - but this was an illness for which we could provide comfort for the symptoms but not a cure.

Tragically, the final toll of AIDS on Bianca’s life was too much for her to want to share with her new family and she left the home to die quietly alone. The street team met her shortly before her death and she said how grateful she was for the brief spell of happiness and love we had given but especially for the hope she now had of a life beyond this one.

[ Toybox Charity, www.toyboxcharity.org ]

Rent, Clothing & Food for an Ex-Street-Child in a Home: £91 for 1 Month / £21 for 1 Week

I love looking at children's drawings and paintings.This one's been done very carefully - they've used a ruler to do nice straight walls, although the one on the left and the roof on the right went ever so slightly wobbly. All the windows have lights on - maybe that's window-boxes or hanging baskets in the middle of the walls - so it's obviously a nice house where someone lives and looks after it.It's been coloured in very well - no flecks straggling over the outlines - although it might be that the inhabitants of this house were so cosy and happy inside that they forgot to put a door in until after they had painted their outside walls green! I'm sure that if you could step into this picture and walk up the garden path to knock on the green house's green door you would find a warm and friendly welcome, and probably an invitation to come in and have some tea.

It would be interesting to see what a child who lives on the streets would draw if they were asked to draw a house or 'where I live'. Would the house be like an inaccessible castle, high above any people in the frame? Would 'where I live' show paper bags used to inhale solvents from discarded by filthy sleeping bags on cold streets?

The children that Toybox has been able to help would be able to draw a very different picture after Toybox had stepped in to help them - Street Teams lead to Day Centre lead to Hostel lead to Homes lead to School & Training lead to Reintegration in Society.
With this present {scroll to 4} you'd be letting me share a little tiny bit in the care and security offered in one of the Toybox homes by 'mum' and 'dad', up to around 12 brothers or sisters, teachers, psychologists and social workers.

[ Toybox Charity, www.toyboxcharity.org ]

10 'Award Winning' Buckets; £23

The mother of all buckets has landed;
The Oxfam Bucket
winner of a bucket award
coming soon to a pump near you.

SO, a special bucket, eh?

What does it do? Sing and dance? Serve after-dinner drinks? Find you the best onine price for insurance?

Well, no - but it has been designed with great care and thoughtfulness. You'll have seen that when you clicked on the 'special bucket' link above, but I just thought this little bit from Oxfam's description of it was delicious.

...the moulding process leaves a small pimple on the bottom of normal buckets. This pimple is removed from the Oxfam bucket - an essential, but easily overlooked consideration for use in countries where loads are usually carried on the head.

It might not look flash or impressive...
but it's a truly brilliant piece of designer kit for lots of people who use it.

[ Oxfam Unwrapped, www.oxfamunwrapped.com ]

Healthy Meals for a Street-Child for a month; £72 (£17 for a week)

Margarita’s story...

Margarita was a street girl who often used to beg outside restaurants and cafes in Guatemala City. She was grateful for any leftover chicken and chips and whatever anyone gave her. When the street team visited her, they would bring some food, just soup and a roll but one day the street team told her they were taking her out for a meal.

She couldn’t believe it, she felt like a princess going into the restaurant like one of the rich people and eating to her heart’s content. Being treated with dignity like this helped her realise her value as a person and to build up the determination to leave behind street life, moving to the hostel and joining one of the homes.

Jamie Oliver has become the patron saint of school meals of late. It was bizarre to see the children & parents' reactions when he started changing things in the school he was in during his TV series. Apparently there were parents up-in-arms about the change in diet (to a healthy one?!) and they'd come to the school gates at lunchtimes with a MacDonald's for their little darlings to make up for all those awful vegetables and things, and presumably also to make sure that their kids remained as obese by the end of the day as they were in the morning.

Jamie's efforts might have been more appreciated by the children that Toybox works with. Living as a scavenger isn't easy - and many of the children have solvent or drug addictions which they, as addicts, will prioritise over getting hold of food. Malnutrition is the obvious product of this, for many - and if you give me this present {scroll to 3} it's not just shouting a dinner, it's feeding a child who really needs it for a whole month (or a week for £17).

[ Toybox Charity, gifts for a street-child, www.toyboxcharity.org.uk ]

Month of Support for 'Houseparents'; £38

A child's drawing of a family. Simple and natural.

It's not so simple and natural for all children - the street-children of Latin America (with whom the Toybox Charity works) often have taken refuge on the dangerous underbelly of their cities' streets to escape their family.

Estuardo's story...

Who can tell what the love of a Mum and Dad means to a child who has known nothing but pain from the hands of adults?

A few years ago, one of the children from the homes visited the UK. One of our supporters met him at a celebration event and this is what she wrote, "Estuardo stood for nearly ten minutes, watching a mother and her son. The boy he was watching was seven and he was sitting on his Mum’s knee, stroking her face as his Mum cuddled him and stroked his hair.

This is the opposite treatment from Estuardo’s experience of his own Mum, who had hurt him so badly, he fled from home. Estuardo obviously so much wanted to be a part of what he saw, that he began to give the son sweets, one at a time. Then he turned to look at me. As I held out my arms to him, he ran straight into my arms and hugged me. When I lifted up his young face, his eyes were wet with tears."

The work of the houseparents in the homes is to give the children the unconditional constant love of committed parents, a love they have never known.

There are children in the U.K. who do the same - and even in this rich country, homeless children are barely provided for, which is a disgrace.

Toybox works in Latin America - and its progressional plan to teach children how to live in the acknowleged community rather than in the ignored and buried world of the streets seems very well thought-out and sensible. This present {scroll to 2} is another one on the theme of fostering children - something I think I'd like to do as there never seem to be enough foster-families around. Parents for a month - if 12 people get me this item from my list, that's a whole year!

[ Toybox Charity, gifts for a street-child, www.toyboxcharity.org.uk ]

A Bed for a Street-Child for a Week; £15

Does this guy look comfortable as he sleeps?
- silly question.

Having had M.E. for the last 4 years or so, I've been doing much more sleeping than I used to. My big comfy double-bed at Liz's house is great, as is my big comfy futon at my Mother's house in Glasgow (not that I'm up there much, but I will be over Christmas).

I've already got 2 beds - and I'd rather like another one {scroll to number 1} this Christmas.It's not for me though - and it's rather further from London, where I live, than Glasgow is. It'd give a child in Latin America a bed for a week. Doesn't sound like a huge contribution - but for a street-child it's a week of safe, warm, comfortable nights. Tragic that that should be special, isn't it?

Imagine that going to bed was exciting for the kids you know. For a week, bedtime might actually be exciting and positive for a child in one of the Latin American countries.

[ Toybox Charity, gifts for a street-child, www.toyboxcharity.org.uk ]

Six 10-litre Plastic Buckets With Lids; £10

Most of the buckets knocking around at Christmas are champagne buckets, or at least sparkling-wine buckets. I hate champagne, but I'd like a bucket, please. Six of them, in fact.
As the words of the immortal song "There's a Hole in My Bucket" point out, it's rather hard to transport water if you're bucketless or if your bucket is holey.

Plastic buckets are easier to clean than wooden ones, and less likely to rust than metal ones. That's particularly handy if the bucket's owner happens to be very old, very young, ill or doesn't have much to clean it with.

A bunch of buckets is a pretty simple present - but it could be hugely useful to many people. If you've got a few coins to defray the cost, chuck it in the bucket.

[ Save the Children shop, www.savethechildrenshop.co.uk ]

1000 Water Purification Tablets; £10

During the ubiquitous adverts whose prevelance only increases during the festive season there are a number of categories of ad that you are definately going to see. Amongst these seasonal favourites are;

• Toys
• Loans
• Chocolate
• Booze & Bevvy
• Hangover Cures
• annual 26th December Cadbury's Creme Egg advert on telly

The hangover cure adverts have one clear leader (in my humble opinion) in terms of a slogan or strapline -

"Alkaseltzer, the science of plink-plink fizzics"

It's a stupid play on words, but it gets the point across. Plop these little pills into water and then when you drink it it will give you blessed relief from the drunken penguins' flying-lessons going on in your head.


I'm not exactly planning on getting hammered over Christmas - but I would like some fizzy pills to drop in water. These ones aren't designed for one after one has been stupid enough to imbibe enough alcohol to give one a stinking hangover and make one feel like something the cat disdained to drag in, they're water purification tablets.

Clean the water
Prevent diseases
Save lives

simple, eh?
Maybe there should be an omnipresent 'holiday season' advert for these too, alongside all the others. 1000 for a tenner's certainly a good offer.

[ Save the Children shop, www.savethechildrenshop.co.uk ]

Hygiene Kit; £20

Packs like these must walk off of shelves at Christmas time - everyone in the U.K. seems to get at least 3 sets of presentation-boxed 'smellies' every year. They're not exactly original, but they are very nice, usually very appreciated, and always very useful. This Christmas I want a toiletries set - but not one of the ribbon encased aromatherapeutic moisturising ones - this one.

For a family swept up in an emergency, perhaps ending up in a camp with hundreds or thousands of other people, epidemics are an all too real possibility. Frustratingly, many of the diseases that thrive amongst them are preventable by the provision of basic equipment. Toothbrushes, razors, soap, washing powder, sanpro, toilet roll, shampoo, toothpaste... nothing fancy.

As well as the health help this could give people, it's a gift that could help people feel better about themselves. If you're clean and groomed you feel better, more able to face other people and less grimy and embarassed. Some of the people who would be given one of these have had all their dignity stripped away. This simple little package could put a sliver of that dignity back where it deserves and belongs.

[ Save The Children shop, www.savethechildrenshop.co.uk ]

School Library Books; £7

Had you guessed yet that I'm a 'book person'?
I suppose that my love of reading makes me aware of just how much pleasure, knowlege and empowerment it's possible to gain just by running your eyes over a printed sheet of words.

There's no reason why so many people should remain subjugated by illiteracy. Of the 20% of our planet's population that can't read (yup, mostly in the developing countries), most are girls and women. Early marriage, childbearing, household duties, parents and societies seeing secondary education as better to give to sons, concerns about girls' safety and, of course, girls having to step in as caregiver if something has happened to their parents and noone else can do so. Only 64% of the women of the world are literate.

With these library books as a present, you'd be letting me help girls and boys to change the statistics, starting with themselves.

[World Vision catalogue, www.greatgifts.org ]

Emergency Cooking Set; £12

I'm not much of a cook. I suppose I can do it - but I can never be bothered. Why cook for one person? It seems like rather a waste of time to me.

The thing I never consider is how fortunate I am to have an option - at the moment in Gujurat, after the earthquake that shook the people there in every possible sense of the word, there are probably mothers who would give anything to be able to knock up a proper hot meal for their families' dinner tonight. They don't have anything to give to make it happen - but if you choose this present (how often do I ever think about anything remotely cookingesque for Christmas?!) for me, then we'll have given a ittle bit, together, to them.

[ World Vision catalogue; www.greatgifts.org ]

Immunise a Child; £20

Vaccinations must be horrible for mums. You take in your lovely peaches and cream smiling chubbly baby to see the doctor, then you bring out a prune-wrinkled scarlet screaming tomato who proceeds to be grizzly and not-quite-right for a day or two afterwards.

With this present, you'll be giving me the chance to give mothers in developing countries who couldn't afford injections, but whose babies are probably more vulnerable than those whose mums can, the opportunity to experience the scenario above as they bring their child to have his or her immunisations for the six main childhood killer diseases, Diphtheria, Whooping cough, Measles, Polio, Tetanus and Tuberculosis.

Weird how the good things we take for granted are even a bit of a trial for us, in our little patch of globe here. Better a bit of yelling and grizzling for a bit rather than a total cessation. We don't even have to contemplate the latter. If only everyone in the world was as lucky as the few of us perched on top of the human heap here in the rich nations are.

[ World Vision catalogue, www.greatgifts.org ]

Carpentry Kit; £44

Does the fact that I own this book make me a very sad person?
If not, owning this one certainly does!

We don't value our artisans much in the U.K. They're very skilled and necessary people though. My dad was good with his hands - epecially making little models and things - although his trade was as an electrician, preferring working on the Merchant Fleet's Cunard-line oil-tankers (pre-me) and on North Sea oil-rigs (post-me) to doing household stuff. He was excellent at the domestic stuff too though - however much it wasn't his favourite thing. He served his apprenticeship in the Clyde shipyards in their heyday and won an award for being the best of the apprentices in the dockyards.

Someone able to do all that sort of stuff should be valued more - the fact that they're not means that there are never enough skilled workers around, especially with apprenticeships and vocational training being seen as inferior or less desirable than academic bits of paper. Which impresses you more; a degree in 'Golf Course Management' or a fully trained tradesman's apprentice?
No contest.

I don't know that I've acquired my dad's skill at working with my hands - but making my first ever viola at Cambridge Violin Workshop has been such a fantastic experience. It still needs varnishing, but all the wooden bits are there and I strung it up 'in the white' to hear what it sounds like. It's not bad at all. Its maker's label inside contains a dedication to my dad.

Although I'm quite some eons away from being a star pupil, I've learned a huge amount during the making process - not least the sheer joy and satisfaction that comes from working wood with handtools (even when you're a total beginner doing it in a hamfisted (maybe even spamfisted) way. If you get me one of these for Christmas, I'll be giving not only the physical tools, but also the tools in terms of the skills needed for someone else to learn the useful trade of carpentry. It's rather different, I expect, to the fine woodworking used in lutherie - but it could give someone a job, dignity and the satisfaction of using his or her hands on tools to make wood do their bidding.

Name a famous carpenter (no, not them), anyone? Oh yes, Joseph of Nazareth and his son, Jesus...
...can't be a bad job then, can it? Not with Heavenly endorsement!

[ World Vision catalogue, www.greatgifts.org ]

School Classroom Equipment; £48

If you want to make sure a group of children don't wriggle around and shift about like particles in a dust-storm, it's often a good plan to have them on chairs rather than on the floor. That way they've got a clearly deliniated space marked out for them by the chair (and desk, if there is one).
It's also rather hard to write legibly if you've got no desk to lean on, and some people find chairs more comfortable to sit on than the floor, apparently (weird).

This present would consign a whole class of children to sitting on chairs.
On the plus side, though, it would give the class a board, desks, and stationery - all good things to help the learning process. I suppose some of them might like the chairs too.

[ World Vision catalogue, www.greatgifts.org ]

Books for a Class; £53

Books are back again - all my Christmas wish-lists would probably have had at least one book on them, especially if they were as long as this one!

This list is no different - except that this is textbooks for a whole class.
"Now, everyone, turn to page 23. Tarquin, would you start to read from the top of the page please?"...

[ World Vision catalogue; www.greatgifts.org ]

Birth Attendant Kit; £67

This photograoh is so cool. The tiny hand holding onto the surgeon's finger belongs to a pre-natal baby - being operated on while still in the womb. Amazing
The whole birth thing is amazing though, isn't it? A woman carrying another little person around inside her, then somehow managing to push it out when it's reached a size that seems impossibly big.

It's no surprise when you think about it that births can throw out complications. It must give everyone around mother and child great peace of mind to know that there's someone there who knows what they're doing, and who has the right stuff. I can't fill the midwife role - but through this present, I can help someone else to do so. A tiny, tiny part in all those little miracles entering the world. Amazing.

[ World Vision catalogue, www.greatgifts.org ]