Whats missing on your holiday wish list? - Foreign Policy Blogs

Whats missing on your holiday wish list? Its official we have entered the holiday season, the Halloween costumes are safely tucked away until next years hauntings and the streets are quickly beginning to come to life with glittering lights. For most of us the lists are beginning as time of gift giving is quickly approaching. But as you begin your holiday shopping and find yourself in a daze of lights and glitter, don’t forget to take a moment to remember the needs of so many that plague children across the world. While we can not single handily bring peace to the world, end poverty or save all the children from suffering, we can all reach out to at least one.

So as you compose your lists here are a few things you may want to add:
Free a child from slavery
Give a child an education
Provide water to a village of children
Provide a child with the gift of sight
Give a child a month of nutritious meals
Provide a sick child with a life saving operation
Vaccinate a child against diseases like Polio
Buy a family a goat
Adopt a family in need and see that the kids get gifts this year

To help you out I have put together a list of a few places that can help you do just that:

Oxfam Unwrapped
FARM-Africa Presents
Save the Children “Wish List”
Present Aid
UNICEF Shop
Practical Presents
CAFOD World Gifts
ActionAid – Gifts in Action
Angel Wish
The Dream Factory
The Ronald McDonald House
Save the Children Wish List
Free the Slaves
Save the Children
Children in Need
UNICEF
Sight Savers
Give the Gift of Sight
Heifer International
World Vision
BBC Children in Need
Mercy Corps
Toys for Tots
Red Cross
My Two Font Teeth
Salvation Army International
Water Aid
Big Brothers and Sisters International
Give Kids the World
Make a Child Smile
Samaritans Purse – Operation Christmas Smile
World Vision

Just Give – 50 Ways to Help Children
Global Girlfriend “Gifts that Do More”

This list is only a small list of charities and organizations that will help you to directly help a child in need, but remember the child in need may be closer than you think. You do not have to have money to make a child’s wish come true, time is a wonderful gift. Remember the child down the street who lives with only an elderly grandparent, the children in need of foster care, the boy down the street who is desperately trying to learn a sport but his single mother doesn’t know how to teach him, the family who this year hasn’t enough to buy presents for their children, etc… The list of possibilities goes on and on, and so do the children in need.