Each year, ABC Home & Planet Foundation introduces its Gifts of Compassion, which present a way to honor friends and family by giving gifts that are meaningful to the world as well. Over 20 different gifts are offered, and this year the Foundation has made Clusters of Compassion available, which allows one to purchase smaller versions of the Gifts of Compassion in bundles of five or more at a reduced price. Each gift is represented by a personalized certificate in a vintage silk sari envelope and includes a photograph showing the gift’s impact.
This holiday season, Gifts of Compassion also includes new gifts to benefit and provide relief in Africa. The gifts feature organizations led by women who aim to create positive, lasting change in Africa: Eve Ensler and V-Day; Green Belt Movement by Nobel Peace Laureate Professor Wangari Maathai; and Grammy award winner Angelique Kidjo’s Batonga Foundation. Along with these gifts, ABC Home will be featuring a five-week installation to celebrate the art, culture, spirit and vision of Africa and the work being done by these organizations.
Gifts of Compassion are broken down into five categories:
Creating Home
Help to create a new home for a family displaced by Hurricane Katrina with Architecture for Humanity; provide learning tools for an after-school center for underprivileged children with the Greyston Foundation; help a Kenyan child orphaned by HIV/AIDS with the Patrick Chege Memorial Orphanage; and more.
Empowerment
Help fund a children’s theater program that aims to empower children from low-income, minority communities in NYC with Children’s Theater Company; offer one year of tutoring and mentoring to a young girl in Africa with Kidjo’s Batonga Foundation; donate to help a farmer in rural India develop an organic farm using indigenous farming techniques with Navdanya; and more.
Planet Protection
Plant 50 trees to support sustainable development and women’s empowerment with Maathai’s The Green Belt Movement International; preserve two acres of valuable Peruvian rainforest and help indigenous communities be self-sufficient with Rainforest Action Network; provide an organic cotton farmer in India with a cow which makes it possible for the farm to be bio-dynamic, with Chetna Organic; plus several other options.
Healing
Provide a Tibetan woman with tools for a healthy pregnancy and safe delivery with One H.E.A.R.T.; give one year of education to a survivor of war and sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo with Ensler’s V-Day; provide bed nets to protect eight pregnant women and their unborn children from malaria in Africa with Malaria No More; and more.
Animal Compassion
Give a home, medical care and rehabilitation to a stray, neglected or injured dog or cat with NY Pet-I-Care; protect polar bear cubs from extinction due to global warming with National Resources Defense Council.
ABC Home & Planet Foundation carefully reviews all of the organizations featured in Gifts of Compassion to ensure that the money truly goes to support the intended cause, and the gifts are 100% tax deductible.
