Holiday Gift Guide: Gifts that Empower Women & Girls
/With the holidays fast approaching, considering giving gifts that do good. The products and services listed below benefit and empower women both here in the United States and abroad in developing nations. Share this post to send a hint to your loved ones wondering what to buy you for the holidays!
FashionABLE
The goal of ABLE is to end generational poverty by creating jobs and giving women opportunities to work with dignity. According to UNICEF, women reinvest 80% of their income into their families, while men invest only 30-40%. By providing women in Ethiopia, the US, Peru, and Mexico with manufacturing and managerial jobs in safe environments, ABLE hopes to end charitable dependency and make a lasting impact in these communities domestically and internationally.
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Akola Jewelry
Benefitting families in Uganda and Dallas, Akola Jewelry’s mission is to help women experiencing challenges both across the globe and in our local neighborhoods. In Uganda, Akola offers employment to women who have survived 20 years of civil war, have been affected by the AIDS epidemic, and women and young mothers who are the sole providers of their households. In Dallas, Akola has created a vocational training and flexible work program to offer a living wage of $15 an hour to women who were formerly incarcerated or are survivors of sex trafficking and domestic violence.
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Banago
Every Banago purchase supports the livelihood of over 400 local artisans in rural communities in the Philippines. Banago provides training and employment to women who handcraft their products from start to finish, and also assists in the recovery of disaster affected communities devastated by Typhoon Haiyan. By giving women the opportunities to develop skills and earn fair wages, they in turn contribute to the economic growth of their own communities.
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Sseko Designs
Based in Uganda, Sseko started as a fashion brand and has since become a way for talented young women to pursue higher education, enabling 87 women to go to university to this day. Sseko additionally provides opportunities for women in the US, giving them the tools to launch their own social enterprises while being paired with a woman on the Sseko team in Uganda, directly contributing to her scholarship. By empowering women through employment and entrepreneurship, economies and livelihoods both here and abroad benefit.
Shop Sseko Designs footwear and interchangeable accents:
Indego Africa
By investing in educational programs in Rwanda and Ghana, Indego supports women by giving them opportunities to grow their businesses, become entrepreneurs, and create economic growth in their communities. In addition to offering vocational and technology training and courses in leadership, Indego’s handmade products share with the world the beauty of traditional African weaving and beading.
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International Rescue Committee
Donations made to The International Rescue Committee benefit young women and mothers facing unimaginable challenges of raising families while displaced or fleeing dangerous situations. You can make a real difference in the life of a refugee by giving a symbolic gift through the IRC. By clicking the following links, you can choose to provide A Safe Birth, A Healthy Pregnancy, Emergency Medical Transport, or a Year of School in the honor of a loved one. Make your donation at least ten days prior to presenting your gift and the IRC will provide you with a printed card honoring the donation.
Kiva
Give your loved one the opportunity to choose and benefit a cause that is important to her by gifting a Kiva Card. Kiva is a service that connects individuals and families in developing nations with lenders that provide them with micro-loans, enabling them to start businesses to fund education and improve their lives. Contribute to or fund a micro-loan in and industry or geographic location of your choice, and give the gift of economic growth by directly empowering the loan recipient. Additionally, once the loan is repaid you can reinvest in another project, making a Kiva loan a gift that keeps on giving.
Share this post to encourage impactful gift-giving this holiday season!
