Anna & James: The Twenty-First of September, 2013

Wedding Gift List

We decided that we don't really need more stuff in our house, so we've set up a charity wedding list. Good Gifts is essentially a broker for a range of charities that offer very specific, targeted aid. We've selected a variety of the gifts they offer, so if you would like to, please choose from our list below. If you don't have any strong preferences, we've starred a few of our favourite causes and put them at the top of the list.

When you click the 'Purchase' button on this page, you'll be sent to the Good Gifts site to make payment. On their site you can add a brief message for us, if you like, and select to either notify us with an e-card or a real gift card (we're happy to receive the environmentally-friendlier e-cards). Note that Good Gifts charge a handling fee of £2.95, in order for the full amount of the donation to go to the right place. This is a 'per transaction' fee, so if you select two gifts, you only pay one handling fee.

Product	Price	Qty
A year's supply of tea. In South India, small tea growers are facing a slack market and little alternative employment exists. However, if you stirred yourself, you could buy their tea at a fair, cost-covering price and give it to widows, disabled and poor people in India. A good deed twice over.	£15
Get a brain cell. Everyone feels the need for extra grey matter. Your £15 will not only give the gift of a sponsored brain cell, but will also fund development of treatments for diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, meningitis and cancer.	£15
Get rid of guns. Time to turn the tables; instead of letting weapons destroy people, why not let people destroy weapons? Clear armaments, including bombs, from recent war zones and make the area safe again. £25 gets shot of pistols, rifles, grenades, or submachine guns.	£25
Pocket money. You could give a hard-pressed family the break it hasn't had for years. A holiday at the seaside costs from £25 a day per person and, if you'd like to sponsor lollies, ices and pocket money, that's £25 for the whole family for the week. Sand between the toes is free.	£25
Music therapy session. Music therapy has the ability to communicate with seriously ill and disabled children and encourage them to express themselves in a new way. £36 pays for a session with an expert therapist and offers a chance to achieve a whole new level of communication.	£36

Product	Price	Qty
A visit to a theatre, opera or concert. Give a child, who would never otherwise have the chance, a visit to a theatre, opera or concert.	£6
Nice new pyjamas and a teddy. Nice new pyjamas and a teddy for children in a women's refuge, who had to leave it all behind.	£8
Exam fees in Africa. In Africa, pupils who've struggled to fund school fees and uniforms fall at the last fence when they have to find yet further fees to sit exams. The school exam certificate provides evidence of school attendance and standard achieved, the passport to a better life.	£12
Medicine to save a life. Nowadays, once-fatal medical conditions can be successfully treated with a simple course of medication. However, this is not the case in vast tracts of Africa and India, where doctors and health workers are pleading for medicines.	£12
2 pairs of shoes. In Africa, barefoot children risk hookworm infestation that can impair physical and mental development. We offer a double duty solution: stimulate local trades by commissioning cobblers to make shoes for the children of Africa and save their soles.	£15
Eye tests and specs for fathers. Giving a father in India or Africa the opportunity for eye tests and spectacles is the quickest way to bring happiness and improve lives.	£15
New Aga Saga. Cooking on open fires makes people ill. Long term chest ailments and susceptibility to TB are almost certain (it's like smoking 40 cigarettes a day). Give a Mum a new, smokeless cooker, and protect her and the children's health.	£15
Puffins Ahoy. A little bird tells us that Britain is home to 10% of the world's puffin population. It also says that the puffins are being affected by a combination of climate change and overfishing. Please act now to preserve our precious puffins.	£15
Solar Lamps. Fact 1: kerosene lamps are bad for lungs. Fact 2: kerosene costs money; sunshine is free. Fact 3: when kerosene lamps are replaced by solar lanterns, there's a great saving in lives and money. Buy solar lanterns for villagers in Africa.	£15
A-peeling Monkeys. Orphaned monkeys, whose mothers have been killed for the bush meat trade, are reared to adulthood until they can fend for themselves. But growing orphan monkeys require loads of fruit. A month's supply for a troupe is just £20.	£20
Invest in a brewery. When Tanzanian temperatures soar, locals reach for a chilled red beer, whose characteristic colour is derived from dried scarlet hibiscus flowers. Enable poor farmers in Kilimanjaro's foothills to grow hibiscus flowers for the women's co-op to provide ingredients for this increasingly popular brew.	£20
Elderly person's hospital kit. For an elderly person, going into hospital can be humiliating if they lack slippers, dressing gown, nightwear and toliet bag. And that's why we prescribe our Hospital Kit to treat the condition.	£25
For lovebirds everywhere. Save the natural habitat of lovebirds. These chubby, small parrots are distinctly monogamous. Let lovebirds flourish by protecting their African forest homes.	£25
Meadow of flowers. When a bunch of flowers does not seem enough, you can buy a whole meadow full for only £25. Your donations help us regenerate meadowland for everyone to enjoy. You are helping to create a playground for bees and butterflies.	£25
Gift of sight for a child. Simple operations can restore the sight of those in the developing world suffering from cataract, trachoma and other blinding conditions. For as little as £27 an operation, you can give the gift of sight.	£27
Nurture an abandoned child for a month. Scoop destitute children up off he street and give them shelter, schooling and nourishment. Fortunately, carers in India and Africa ensure sad beginnings can have happy endings. The cost, £1 a day.	£30
The orphan's dowry. Extended African families, often very poor themselves, take in orphans. Help the orphans become a gain not a drain: give a 2-goat dowry that remains as long as the orphan stays with the family. Milk for everyone, and the opportunity to build up a herd of goats.	£30
30 mango trees. Poor villagers are encouraged to plant mango orchards to enrich the soil and help conserve water. Crops are delicious, reliable, drought-resistant and will provide income for generations.	£35
Donkey drawn library-book grant. The trunk is made of steel to repel rats and termites. It's padlocked to protect its valuable contents: around 100 volumes of fiction, non-fiction and reference books. It's constantly on the move, trundled by donkey or bicycle cart to schools in former war zones.	£35
Teach a mother to read. In war-torn areas of Africa women missed out on education. But now they're able to glimpse a different, significantly better life, where they are able to acquire the ability to read and write. Our village literacy groups offer friendship, achievement and the opportunity to improve the future.	£35
Bamboo bike. By using locally grown bamboo for the frames, workshops in Africa can build bikes that are stronger and cheaper than imported bikes and easier to repair (important on Africa's bumpy terrain). Fill the workshop's order book by buying a bamboo bike for a midwife, health worker or teacher.	£50
Fruit trees. Throughout Africa, where employment is scarce, providing seeds, equipment and training gives the opportunity to grow vegetables, fruit and medicinal herbs. Community orchards, allotments, and school gardens raise spirits and food for home and market.	£75
Clean water for a school. The bad news: in parts of Bangladesh, arsenic occurs naturally in the water, a toxin linked to cancer and other life-threatening conditions. The good news: a simple, yet efficient filtration system, kind to both environment and people, has been devised.	£100
Milch cow. A milch cow for a farmer in Africa, the traditional bride price, giving him the means to support his new family.	£100

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