Outreach International Catalog

Sustainable Gifts Catalog from Outreach International

I received this catalog from Outreach International in the mail yesterday and I flipped through it during dinner last night.  Take a bite of food, share a new fact with Troy, and repeat.  Did you know that a $15 donation provides 5 pairs of shoes for orphaned children?  (Mmmm, this Kung Pao Chicken is really good.)  Chickens provide breakfast (or dinner at our house) for 3 years and your $25 donation gives a family 2 chickens.  (Wooo, I'm starting to feel the heat from those chili's!)  A donation of $55 provides a water bucket filter so they can have clean drinking water...something we take for granted.  (Need a drink now, my mouth is on fire!)

From the Outreach International website "Our mission is simple: we believe in long-term investments that bring about sustainable solutions and long-lasting change for the better. We call it Sustainable Good."  I love that they are not just providing food and shelter, but giving them a means to continue providing for those things for themselves for years to come.  They are educating them and giving them the resources so that they can continue to thrive even after the people providing assistance have left. 

There are a wide range of items so there is something in everyone's price range.  I think it's great that you get to choose to donate a goat, school supplies, toothbrushes, medical care, or even a toilet with your money.  This is a great way to get children involved in understanding the importance of making a donation.  Money is hard for younger kids to understand; $50 and $500 are essentially the same to them.  Start talking about chickens laying eggs and you will capture the child's attention. 

As I was glancing through the catalog one item that stood out to me was the most expensive item; Village Basics for $10,000.  I know, you probably can't make that large of a donation, and neither can I. (You can purchase shares of it for $175 each.)  This provides a VILLAGE (not one family...a whole village) with clean water, efficient sanitation systems, developed roads, and a community building where they can come together. 

I'm not arguing that $10,000 is a lot of money, because that is more than I can ever imagine actually having my hands on.  When I think about how much money I make in a year and how I am still struggling to pay my bills it makes me sad because our combined yearly salary could provide the Village Basics for several villages, yet we there are just 2 of us and we think we have it rough because we have to eat off the dollar menu when we go out to eat.  Did you hear that?  I said WHEN we go out to eat.  There are villages of people that need clean drinking water and I still manage to find a dollar for a McChicken...and another dollar for a large Coke. 

Here are some examples of things you can buy for $10,000 in my part of the world.

• a used car
• a very fancy vacation
• 10,000 McChicken's at McDonalds
• 6667 bottles of water
• 156 feet of paved road
• 2 of the Toto Neorest 600 Toilet (it has a remote control)
• a college education

$10,000 is out of my reach as far as a donation goes, but $15 to put shoes on 5 children is definitely possible.  That's one large pizza with delivery!  Skip a meal at a sit down restaurant and instead spend $25 providing chickens (and 3 years worth of breakfast...or dinner) to a family.  Rent a movie from Redbox instead of heading to the theater and you could provide toothbrushes or (if you have a larger family) school supplies with the money you saved. 

My sweet moment was looking through a catalog of items that other people need and realizing what a difference even a small amount makes.  A $10,000 donation is amazing and helps many people, but those $15 donations are just as important, and much easier to achieve.