If I Had 100$

    What would you do with 100$? New toys, books, maybe an Ipod? That would be the typical answer now a days.  However would the thought of giving developing countries these gifts cross your minds? Perhaps you could pass up some of your toys and books. These items would mean a lot for other children who can't afford them.

    This assignment had us research the following organizations and what kind of Ethical gifts that they had to offer. First, I will give the organization and brief description and then I will give you a definition on what Ethical gifts are.

    Oxfam
    An organization that works toward helping peoples basic human rights. Workers combine to create support in humanitarian research in the long term. They also research the root causes against poverty and injustice. They have a total of 28 programs all over the world, and partner with over 100.

    Salvation Army
    A christian organization that first started in Canada in 1882. Salvation army gives support to those vulnerable in 400 communities across Canada. They also help in over 120 countries world wide. They provide shelter for families and children, and also offer help for those who lost themselves to addiction.

    Plan Canada
    Plan Canada's work is based around helping children out of poverty. They help them with education, health, water and sanitation, protection, economic security, emergencies, human rights, and sexual health including HIV. They work in an attempt to someday take the children out of harms way and into a world like ours.

    World Vision
    World vision is another Christan organization that is dedicated to work for children, like Oxfam fights against injustice and poverty in developing countries. They are motivated to help those in need regardless of religion, sex, or race.

    Now that you know a little about the organizations, I can explain to you what ethical gifts are.

   Ethical Gifts   Are gifts that can be bought with money, or a gift card. Many of you may have seen the commercial where the family ends up having goats bought for them. When instead they meant for it to be bought for a developing country. Ethical gifts are a great way to help support help in other countries while at the same time knowing where your money goes.

Almost each site had a ton to choose from in the following categories:

• Animals
• Water
• Disease
• Education
• Prevention
• Safety
• Human Rights
• Sanitaion
• Food

   Now, with so many choices how was I do decide where my 100$ would go? I looked towards the cheapest but most effective options. After browsing through each organizations choices, I wrote down what each organization had to offer.

    Oxfam Unwrapped
Cheapest Gift- Seeds 3 bags 12$. Most expensive, Disaster Preparedness 1300$. 39 options.
Salvation Army Gifts Of Hope
10 options, cheapest being a 10$ donation that they decide what it goes to. Most expensive being 200$ towards adult literacy.
Plan Canada Gifts Of Hope
42 options. Cheapest is a baby blanket for 10$, most expensive is a complete water solution for 25,000$.
Lastly, World Vision Gift Catalogue
97 options. Cheapest is a set of school supplies for a child that costs 25$. The most expensive is 15,000$ going towards protecting, rehabilitating, and re-integrating girls in Cambodia. This helps 9 girls.

I think this post is getting towards a "To long, Didn't Read" status so I'll just start to wrap this up.

Since I saw that World Vision had a lot to choose from, I started there. However, each gift only applied to one family, or one child. I want to help a lot of people with my money! So I went over to Salvation Army's site and saw what they had. I saw a great deal on goats that would only cost me 40$. Goats can provide a family with business and food in the milk they produce and once they are older can be killed for it's food and pelt. Now I still had 60$ left. While I continued to browse Salvation Army's site, I stumbled upon some mosquito nets for 12$. These will provide safety against malaria. A life threatening disease spread by mosquito. With the nets, families will be protected while they sleep and work from the insects.

I still have 48 dollars to spend! With my extra money I surfed over to Plan Canada to see what they could give me. I saw a ton of great deals and saw an option for giving mango tree's to a country. These cost 12$ and would provide food, shade, and business for communities in need. Surprisingly, I'm still left with money! 36$ is what I continued to browse the sites with. Plan Canada also offered a good deal with baby chicks! For 15$ I could give a village 3 baby chicks. These would give the village education, for children just learning to farm, food, and income with the eggs they will produce later on. The chicks will be two females and a male so that they can soon have more chicks when they are full grown.

Now I'm left with 21$. Looking at the last site, Oxfam, jumped out with an offer for 8 quality school books. For 22$ I could buy 8 school books that will go to a village and educate lots of children who desperately need an education to get on in life. These books can be shared with many generations and will help teach children of all ages.

Even though I went over a dollar, my teacher was kind enough to pitch in an extra buck for the cause.
I think the gifts I chose will help all the people they were given too. They are gifts that will keep providing and will help many more people than just one family. But I chose the gifts from different organizations to get a good deal for the money I was given. I want to give a village the best of what I could afford so browsing and purchasing from different sites was what I chose to do.

What would you purchase with 100$? Would you buy for yourself? Or someone else?

-Sam

Ps. No I didn't actually spend 100$ my teacher gave me! This was for an assignment to see what we would do with 100$. : )