GIVE THE MOST BEAUTIFUL GIFTS WITH SOUL

Gifts are more beautiful when they consider the soul and spirit. Whether they are sourced or made in fair and sustainable ways, whether they help right wrongs, whether they provide for critical needs, gifts that make the world a better place in some way, make many people smile, not just the giver and the receiver. You can help make the world a better place by giving gifts of soul.

Here are some ideas for your soulful gift list, curated-for-beauty by the BN Team. From gorgeous jewelry that is Fairmined and sourced through Fairtrade, to forever homes for rescued pets via Social Tees, to a luxury game that helps save endangered wildlife via  Alexandra Llewellyn, to critical health and education needs via Ubuntu Pathways, First Book, and Lucky Iron Fish, to life itself via charity:water and the Red Cross, check out our soul-filled gift suggestions below.

1. GIFT: A BABY GOAT -- INTERNATIONAL RESCUE COMMITTEE

Give a goat!

Beyond being adorable, a baby goat is a very valuable asset to people in places like South Sudan, where ongoing conflict has spurred a food crisis and milk can be scarce. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is helping families to survive and rebuild their lives with the delivery of baby goats. A goat can give a family in need nourishment as well as a sustainable source of income and a chance to regain economic independence.

2. GIFT: SCHOOL SUPPLIES -- INTERNATIONAL RESCUE COMMITTEE

Give children in need school supplies so they can learn and grow into productive members of society.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is a global humanitarian aid, relief, and development organization. It helps people in over 40 countries and 22 US cities whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover, and gain control of their future. It offers a collection of gifts that you can give to bring kindness and relief to people who need it most. We’re showcasing a selection of IRC gifts for your consideration.

A backpack of school supplies, along with caring guidance and support, can help ease a refugee child’s transition to a new school. The first day of school can be an anxious one for any child. Imagine the first-day jitters of a refugee child—the new kid not only in class, but in an entirely new country. The IRC offers school supplies, along with caring guidance and support, to help thousands of refugee children settle into their new schools in the United States.

Give a Gift of School Supplies.

3. GIFT: CLEAN WATER - VIA CHARITY : WATER

Give people in need clean water.

Water, like air, is something most people we know take for granted. We simply turn on the tap, and beautiful clean water comes out. But for 663 million people on our planet, it is a scarce vital resource. For us, it is shocking to learn that more than 1 in 10 people do not have access to clean water. They are perennially thirsty and at risk for disease as a result of poor sanitation conditions due to lack of water.

Charity : Water is a non-profit organization bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations.

For many of these people, the only source of water has been a polluted swamp or a tiny trickle. For many, their daily journey has required them to carry fuel cans containing 80 pounds of water each for miles. Some families have had to dig in sand to try to reach underground water. The few that have had access to wells have often had to wait up to 8 hours for a turn.

Some simple solutions have been made possible by Charity : Water. They help fund the creation and installment of freshwater wells, rainwater catchments, and sand filters.

Unlike many charities, Charity : Water uses 100% of public donations to directly aid people in need of clean water. All of their overhead costs are privately donated by Silicon Valley heavyweights, such as Jack Dorsey, Chris Sacca, John Doerr, Jonathan Ive, and Angela Ahrendts. So when you donate, 100% your money helps quench someone’s thirst. GIVE TO CLEAN WATER.

4. GIFT: BOOKS - VIA FIRST BOOK

Give children in need books so they can learn and grow.

First Book provides access to new books for children in need. To date, First Book has distributed more than 85 million books and educational resources to programs and schools serving children from low-income families throughout the United States and Canada. First Book is transforming the lives of children in need and elevating the quality of education by making new, high-quality books available on an ongoing basis.”

First Book makes a beautiful transformation in the lives of low income children by providing them with the books and resources they need to receive a quality education.

Give brighter futures with FIrst Book.

5. GIFT: BLOOD - VIA RED CROSS

Give life.

The pretty polka dots artfully scattered above are beautiful, but they are also vital. The microscopic image affords us a close up view of life-giving blood, including a heart-shaped white blood cell.

Next month, January, is historically the toughest time of the year for blood banks to attract donors. In the United States alone, someone is in dire need of blood every two seconds! That means that more than 44,000 blood donations are needed every single day. Why not do your part to live beautifully and compassionately and donate blood?

Visit the Red Cross to make a blood donation appointment and help save a life.

These pretty polka dots can save lives. But only if you give them away.

 

6. GIFT: EDUCATION, HEALTH CARE, & SUPPORT - VIA UBUNTU PATHWAYS

Give children in need a chance to grow and lead healthy productive lives.  

Lithemba Ntshaka has two sick parents and not much else. He lives in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, in one of the world’s poorest areas. And yet he sees how good mental and physical healthcare can make all the difference to his life and the lives of those in his community.

He wants to become a doctor so he can give back to. And the Ubuntu Pathways is helping to make sure he has the support and the resources he needs to realize that dream.

Lithemba is not alone. Every child that comes to Ubuntu faces challenges so daunting they could easily stop a giant. Yet Ubuntu helps them to rise to their challenges, and helps them to triumph by creating individualized pathways for each child.

Ubuntu’s comprehensive interventions are focused on three key areas: household stability, health, and education.

Your gift to Ubuntu Pathways will help change the world, not only for the people of Port Elizabeth, but for us all. Every $10 you give increases the lifetime earnings of an Ubuntu Scholar by $87 and results in $22 generated for society.

7. GIFT: VITAL NUTRITION - VIA LUCKY IRON FISH

Give the gift of strength. Iron deficiency affects nearly 3.5 billion people worldwide. Lucky Iron Fish can help.

Lucky Iron Fish is a carefully formulated health innovation, made of recycled iron, that has been shown to substantially reduce incidence of iron deficiency induced anemia, weakness, impaired cognitive ability, compromised physical development in children, along with a host of other illness and related death.

When put in a cooking pot of food, a Lucky Iron Fish imparts much needed iron to the nutrient mix. It can provide an entire family with up to 90% of their daily iron intake for up to 5 years. It’s a simple, affordable, and effective solution anyone can use.

In Cambodia, after just 9 months of daily use, Lucky Iron Fish there was a 50% decrease in the incidence of clinical iron deficiency anemia, and an increase in users’ iron levels.

Lucky Iron Fish in Cambodia are packaged in palm leaf boxes made by Watthan Artisans Cambodia, a cooperative of people with physical disabilities (many of which have been caused by landmines).

Lucky Iron Fish in Canada are packaged by ARC Industries, a community organization that provides employment training and support for people who have an intellectual disability.

Available at Lucky Iron Fish. And you can donate here.

8. GIFT: WILD AID BACKGAMMON BOARD -- VIA ALEXANDRA LLEWELLYN

GIve a gorgeous game that helps save our planet’s most beautiful creatures.

It’s not all fun and games, it’s also helping to save endangered wildlife. The Wild Aid Backgammon Board, designed by Alexandra Llewellyn, is incredible beautiful on so many levels.

Fashion and nature photographer Kristian Schmidt collaborated with Llewellyn, contributing selections from Schmidt’s incredible whale shark photo series. Each set is signed and numbered by Schmidt. It also includes a signed numbered photo print from Schmidt’s “Whaleshare” series.

The game is housed in an ebony case, with brass hinges and fasteners. The playing pieces are made of lapis and turquoise stones encased in brass, each engraved with names of the world’s most endangered species in both English and Latin, to help raise awareness about wildlife conservation.

There are only 10 of these boards in this Llewellyn Limited Edition.

Available at Alexandra Llewellyn.

9. GIFT: FAIR SUSTAINABLE JEWELRY -- VIA -- TOBY POMEROY

Jewelry that honors our earth as well as the people who mine the metals and gemstones, makes a beautiful gift.

The Oro Verde mine remains the only source of environmentally responsible and socially uplifting Fairmined platinum. It is mined in a cooperative environment, by hand, without the use of heavy machinery.

Toby Pomeroy’s TRUE GOLD™ jewelry line uses Fairmined metals and gemstones, which are completely traceable gold, platinum, diamonds and gemstones, showing complete authenticity from mine to market.

According to the designer, “Just as we take great care in crafting of the planet’s most precious materials, we must go to great lengths to ensure that our procurement of these resources is one of as little negative impact as possible. To forgo this responsibility would taint on the legacy of these precious items, as true gifts from the earth.”

Toby Pomeroy pieces are available for purchase here.

10. GIFT: FOREVER LOVING HOME -- VIA SOCIAL TEES ANIMAL RESCUE

Giving an abandoned animal a loving forever home is a beautiful gift for not only the animal but also for its adoptive “parents.”

Social Tees Animal Rescue is a not-­for-profit, strictly no-­kill organization, based in New York City, that takes abandoned animals from kill shelters and provides them with safe haven and veterinary care before placing them in proper forever homes.

Social Tees rescues, rehabilitates, and places over 3,000 dogs, cats, birds, and exotics per year. They work closely with the ASPCA, the North Shore Animal League, and Petco. They have also partnered with rescue groups in Tennessee and California, where the euthanasia rates are higher than they are in the northeast, helping them find forever homes for hundreds of animals annually.

See available Social Tees Animal Rescue adoptees on Petfinder.

See more Gifts of Kindness, Soulful Jewelry Gifts, Pet Rescue Gifts, Gifts that Give Back, and Gifts of Reading.

Read more about Beautiful Giving in Fast Beauties: Dream Cars, Boats & Planes and 10 Most Beautiful Baubles to Give Now.

And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Mind/Body, Soul/Impact, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Arts/Design, and Place/Time, Daily Fix posts.

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IMAGE CREDITS:

1. Image: by Kevin Bovard. “Mama and Baby Mountain Goat.”
2. Image: by Tambako The Jaguar. “Baby kissing the mother.”
3. Image: by Peter Biro. “Girls at an IRC-supported school, Logar, Afghanistan.” Logar, Afghanistan. Courtesy of International Rescue Committee UK.
4. Image: Young girl with a glass of clean water. Courtesy of charity : water.
5. Image: Children around a water spigot Courtesy of charity: water.
6. Image: Julianne Moore with a child in First Book program. Courtesy of First Book.
7. Image: by Meowlody. “Sonder.” “The heart-shaped nucleus in the white blood cell shows that it is a young monocyte cell.”
8. Image: “Lithemba Ntshaka, Doctor-to-Be.” Courtesy of Ubuntu Pathways.
9. Image: Children at class at the Ubuntu Pathways Early Childhood Development Program. Courtesy of Ubuntu Pathways.
10. Image: Lucky Iron Fish. Courtesy of Lucky Iron Fish.
11. Image: Lucky Iron Fish. Courtesy of Lucky Iron Fish.
12. Image: “Wild Aid” Backgammon Board. Courtesy of Alexandra Llewellyn.
13. Image: “Wild Aid” Backgammon Board. Courtesy of Alexandra Llewellyn.
14. Image: “TRUE GOLD™ Jewelry, designed by Toby Pomeroy. Courtesy of Toby Pomeroy.
15. Image: “Petite Eclipse.” Fair Trade Gem Earrings. Courtesy of Toby Pomeroy.
16. Image: by Dan Wright. Rescue dog. Courtesy of Social Tees Animal Rescue.
17. Image: Rescued puppies. Courtesy of Social Tees Animal Rescue.
18. Image: Rescued dogs. Courtesy of Social Tees Animal Rescue.
19. Image: by Dan Wright. Rescue kitten. Courtesy of Social Tees Animal Rescue.
20. Image: Sustainably mined gold. Courtesy of Oro Verde.