insideSUSSEX Magazine Issue 10 - December 2015 | Page 128

CHARITY
GIFTS THAT KEEP ON giving cont.

in a temporary school, that’s learning that can
last a lifetime): £35
• Toys (more than just something to play with,
these toys will be something to cling to, giving
a child some much needed comfort in times
of trouble): £10
www.savethechildren.org.uk

Oxfam
Oxfam’s goal is to help lift people out of poverty.
It won’t be easy, and the road has been a long
one, but by buying one of the many charity gifts
available through Oxfam, you can help that cause
even further.
Enabling people to start their own lives,
small businesses, get an education… that will
make a difference in the end, giving them the
tools, knowledge, and confidence they need
around the world to make poverty a thing of the
past. The Oxfam charity gifts can be bought in
categories, depending on what you want to do,
and how you want to help. Choose between
teachers, gardeners, animal lovers, and parents
and carers, or buy something that will help
everything.
Gifts include:
• Feed A Family (rather than distributing food
directly, your money provides vouchers or cash
that can be used to buy food locally. This gives
people a better choice, a more varied diet and
also supports local traders): £7
• Farmyard (an Oxfam farmyard is an opportunity
for people t o earn a decent living. Your gift
could include a cow, a goat, a sheep, some
chickens or supplies needed to grow a good
veg crop): £250
• Educate a Child (your gift can help Oxfam to
persuade governments, local authorities and
communities to improve schooling for all
children): £19
• Safe Water for 50 People: £50

Centrepoint
Helping the homeless is something that
Centrepoint has been doing for decades. They
work on housing, education, support, health,
and moving on once it is time to leave the hostel
and make a fresh start. This is how those who
are young and homeless – those who are just
like our own children but for a quirk of fate or
loss of family or one poor decision – can find
hope once more.
Centrepoint provides a safe place to live
for more than 7,800 young people, aged 16-25,
every year in London and the north east of
England, but they need donations and help to
do even more.
Gifts include:
• Christmas Dinner (at a time when they may be
used to feeling particularly lonely, they’ll get a
hot, healthy meal that they can enjoy with
friends and people who are there to support
them out of homelessness): £5
• A Room for A Year (this gift includes counselling,
support, and help getting into education): £144
• Set of Toiletries (when you’ve been living on
the streets or in run down buildings, the chance
to wash and brush your teeth seems like a
luxury): £15
• Health Check (when they arrive at Centrepoint,
the young people are checked over to ascertain
what special health needs or psychological
support they might require): £20
www.centrepoint.org.uk

RSPCA
For many, animals are just as important as
humans, and for animal lovers who are also keep
to help out, a gift from the RSPCA could well be
the perfect Christmas present. The RSPCA is
the oldest animal welfare charity in the world,
and as such one of the problems it has is that
the public assume it is well funded. That’s not

www.oxfam.org.uk

128

the case, and every penny really does help the
charity to provide safety and rescue to thousands
of animals each year.
Gifts include:
• Cat or Dog Bed and Breakfast (this gift will
contribute to the cost for one night's boarding
for a rescued cat or dog at one of the RSPCA’s
animal centres as well as their meals): £6 for
cats and £15 for dogs
• Wildlife Rehabilitation: £15
• Break Up A Dogfighting Ring (the RSPCA’s
undercover Special Ops team carries out a lot
of longer-term, sometimes dangerous projects.
Your gift could help pay for an hour of an SOU
team member’s time): £15
• Fuel A Van (your gift could give a van a tankful
of fuel, giving it around 150 miles to travel
around the towns and countryside, offering
help precisely where it’s needed): £65
• Wildlife Incubator: £100
www.rspca.org.uk

If you are the person who, whenever
asked what you want for Christmas,
always shrugs and says that you don’t
want anything because you don’t need
anything, leaving those who are trying to
find something perfect for you with their
heads and wondering what to do next,
why not change your answer?
Why not say that although you don’t
want anything because you don’t need
anything, there are plenty of people out
there who do. People who desperately
need clean running water. People who
need to get to school. People who, without
help, would spend another night out on
the streets. Even animals who need shelter
and warmth and a bit of human kindness.
Why not ask for a charity gift this
Christmas? It is, after all, the season of
goodwill.