Charities

During x-mas a lot of people give to Charities. Some people even give to charities instead of giving gifts. I did this with my friends one year. We took the money we would have spent on each other and gave it to a worthy cause. My neighbor works at the women's shelter in our area. They receive enough donations during Christmas to last them the whole year. The women's shelter relies on these donations and consider themselves very lucky to receive them. With this in mind I was talking to a few ladies the other day and asked them: if some one wanted to donate to charity as your Christmas present, what charity would you want them to donate to on your behalf? what charity is your favorite? We all have a favorite. And there are so many out there.
one said operation smile
the other said the Utah Food and Care Coalition
I thought about this myself. what is my favorite charity?
Andy said his was the Perpetual Education Fund this gives education loans to people in poverty to help them end the poverty cycle. Since Andy served an LDS mission to Brazil, he knows how important a program like this can be in a person's life.
I've been involved in a number of things through out my life. I currently donate a small amount to the American Field Service (AFS) Student Exchange Programs every year. This is the program that I went to Belgium with my Senior year of high school. They gave me a big scholarship to go and I owe it to them to pay it back.
Every Christmas Andy and I give what we can to the Food and Care Coalition. We usually give a gift card to a local grocery store so that people in need can get produce and other things a Food Bank just isn't stocked with. This year I also gave a tiny amount, really only a membership fee, to Amnesty International. Issues they deal with truly sadden me-- I am very disturbed by what goes on in the world, in my own country.
I had a Teacher Assistant at BYU who is currently an activist for Burma. I read her blog and send emails to the UN etc. when US Campaign for Burma requests it.
So what is my favorite? I don't know. This is something I definitely want to find out.