Beyond the Red Cross and the Mall
A Guide to Gift-Giving Alternatives
compiled by Sara Smits

Tired of trying to find the right gift for family and friends? This year consider some alternative gift ideas that will not only honor the recipient but also make a larger impact on the lives of others. Please choose from a variety of options, ranging from aid to hurricane and earthquake victims to saving gorillas in Rwanda.

To allow for more listings only web addresses are given. If you do not have internet access, please contact SPC and we’ll help.

Hurricane Katrina Relief
Although donations to hurricane relief have been overwhelmingly generous, there are a number of grassroots organizations that have been overlooked during the allocation of aid. Please consider donating to one of the following groups:

ACORN
www.acorn.org
This national grassroots community orga-nization, headquartered in New Orleans, organizes displaced low-income members to make sure their neighborhoods get their fair share of aid from the government.

Common Ground Collective
www.commongroundrelief.org/
A local, community-run organization that offers assistance, mutual aid, and support to New Orleans communities that have been historically neglected and underserved.

Cooperative Development Foundation
www.cdr.coop/
Cooperatives are an important building block in social and economic recovery. They provide infrastructure and access to credit and markets, all of which will be critical as the rural economies of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi move from their dependence on the initial relief efforts to long-term sustainable recovery.

Food Not Bombs
www.foodnotbombs.net
FNB groups all across the southern United States are feeding families displaced by Katrina. The groups need clothes, cooking equipment, food, cooks and money to provide for thousands of hungry homeless people. Every donation goes directly to helping people. FNB is familiar to many affected by Katrina because FNB has been sharing free food in communities throughout the area for many years and can often reach areas not accessible to other agencies.

Louisiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence
www.lcadvhrf.org
Women and children are highly vulnerable to domestic violence; the social and economic stress of the recent disaster has increased their vulnerability. LCADV has created a fund to assist survivors, in addition to rebuilding the five shelters lost to Hurricane Katrina.

The People’s Hurricane Relief Fund and Oversight Coalition
www.communitylaborunited.net
A coordinated network of community leaders, organizers and community-based organizations, PHRF is helping to meet the needs of people most impacted by Katrina. Specific activities include a story collection project and a call for solar power as there is still no power in some parts of New Orleans.

The People’s Institute for Survival and Beyond
www.pisab.org
The People’s Institute was created to develop more analytical, culturally-rooted and effective community organizers. Through this process, it has built a national collective of anti-racist, multicultural com-munity organizers who do their work with an understanding of history, culture, and the impact of racism on communities. The office and many of the staff’s homes were destroyed in the hurricane.

S.O.S. – Saving Our Selves
www.sosafterkatrina.org
The work of this coalition is intended to transcend emergency relief, and will extend into the recovery and restoration phases. Grassroots organizations, united with each other and their supporters, will be involved in creating and implementing strong plans for rebuilding, strengthening and transforming the communities and lives of the rural poor and working class in the South.

Sparkplug Foundation
www.sparkplugfoundation.org
The Sparkplug Foundation provides a listing of grassroots organizations that provide immediate disaster relief to poor people and people of color. These organizations are directed by or accountable to the people they serve, and foster the democratic inclusion of poor people and people of color in the rebuilding process.

United Houma Nation
www.unitedhoumanation.org
Although largely unknown to the public and ignored by the press, numerous Native tribes in the Gulf were impacted by Hurricane Katrina. The Houma Nation, one of those hardest hit, is reaching out to various Native communities throughout the region.

South Asia Earthquake Relief
ATH’ROT “Helping Hand”
www.athrot.org/
This is the collective effort of independent voluntary organizations and individuals to implement shared and sustained programs – both short- and long-term – for the rehabilitation of victims, particularly in inaccessible areas.

CARE
www.careusa.org
CARE and its partners are delivering sup-plies to survivors of the massive earthquake. With winter approaching, the people of Pakistan and India need tents, food, safe water and other essentials which CARE supplies.

Child Nurture and Relief
www.chinar.org
CHINAR is an independent, non-profit organization working for the psychosocial rehabilitation of orphaned and vulnerable children in conflict areas–irrespectiveof race, religion, culture or gender. The organization is accepting donations to help the victims of this disaster in India.

Edhi International Foundation
www.kinderusa.org
Edhi Foundation, with offices in the region, sprang into action hours after the devastating quake hit, providing health services, food, shelter, and rescue operations. Currently they have three centers with response teams mobilized in Muzaffarabad and eight major administrative zones situated throughout Pakistan, all working on the relief efforts.

Grassroots International
www.grassrootsonline.org/weblog/earthquakeaid.html
Grassroots International has put together a list of progressive groups working in the region affected by the earthquake. Listings were generated by a number of progressive South Asian activists in the United States.

Islamic Circle of North America Relief
www.icna.org
ICNA Relief provides food packages for families in areas hit by the quake, and builds tent villages for evacuees housing more than 280 families. Other facilities include a school, clinic, kitchen, and water tanks. Much needed medicines, medical supplies and surgical equipment are also provided on an ongoing basis to quake victims.

Islamic Relief
www.islamic-relief.com
Islamic Relief has worked in Pakistan since 1992 on emergency relief, development and disaster preparedness projects. IR’s work is heavily focused on the areas that have been badly affected by the earthquake. IR has extensive experience in this region.