shoppers to help the world's poor
Shoppers can find presents for those people on their list who "have everything" while helping the world's poorest citizens at the Yale Alternative Gift Market, to be held 1-6 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 9, in Dwight Chapel, 67 High St.
The market -- sponsored by Reach Out: The Yale College Partnership for International Service -- offers shoppers an opportunity to purchase a gift in a friend's or relative's name that will help fund local and international projects to help people in need.
The projects and potential gifts range in focus and in price. Shoppers can spend $60 for a gift that will support one eye cataract surgery in Honduras, or $6 for one share of that surgery. They can buy a pig for a Ugandan family for $33 ($3 a share), or an ox for $220 ($20 a share). Other projects support clean water in Latin America, bicycles for students in South Africa and Ghana, refugee resettlement in America, free wheelchairs for disabled individuals in China, shelter and education for street children in India, and more.
The Yale Alternative Gift Market is one of over 300 similar events held around the world that are coordinated by Alternative Gifts International and Heifer Project International. The chosen projects must meet strict guidelines for relevance and accountability.
At the Yale fair, shoppers can browse through display booths featuring information on over 30 projects. When a shopper purchases an alternative gift, a donation is given to the chosen cause, and the shopper receives a decorative holiday card with information about the gift, which they can send to the individual the gift honors.
Shoppers can sample food from around the world while they shop, and listen to performances by some of Yale's world music groups, including the Women's Slavic Chorus, an African drumming troupe and a Chinese harpist. There will also be goats, rabbits and chickens on hand as examples of the livestock being given to families in need.
Reach Out: The Yale College Partnership for International Service sponsored a similar market last year that raised over $4,000.
The undergraduate organization was founded last fall by a group of students that included current Yale College seniors Erin McCreless and Jocelyn Lippert, who now serve on the group's board with seniors Colleen Carey and Ruth Degolia and juniors Sarah Moros and Alexis Ringwald.
The group's mission is to provide Yale students with opportunities to learn about, travel to, and engage in hands-on work in developing countries. Last summer, with funding from the President's Office, Reach Out sponsored fellowships that sent 10 students overseas to work with nonprofit organizations in such countries as India and Guatemala. This year, the group is organizing Spring Break Service Learning Trips to four developing countries -- Cuba, Brazil, Honduras and Nicaragua -- and plans to sponsor campus activities on international themes.
Group members are working to raise awareness among Yale students about the need for global accountability, understanding and cooperation, and to promote curriculum development on international affairs. The Reach Out website (www.yale.edu/reachout) provides a database of international service opportunities for students.
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