Many of us look for special ways to reach out to needy and hurting children and make their Christmas a little brighter. Yet, with so many organizations to choose from, selecting a trustworthy and reliable charity for your special Christmas project may seem overwhelming.
Each of these favorite Christmas charities for children has its own unique distinctions, so take a look and chose the project that best appeals to your personal spirit of giving.
Angel Tree
Angel Tree is a ministry of Prison Fellowship, delivering love in the form of Christmas gifts and a message of hope to children of prisoners.
Angel Tree Christmas program connects the parents in prison with their children through the delivery of personally selected Christmas gifts by local church volunteers who purchase and deliver the presents. Along with gifts, the volunteers take God's love and the gospel to children. Often times the local church will host a Christmas party for the kids, their caretakers, and family.
www.prisonfellowship.org
Operation Christmas Child
Operation Christmas Child is a ministry of Samaritan's Purse. The project invites you to pack a shoe box with small toys, school supplies, other gifts, and a personal note to introduce a hurting child to God's love. The small gifts of love and messages of hope through Jesus Christ are delivered to needy children overseas.
Volunteers are also encouraged to pray for the children who will receive the shoe boxes. Families and church groups can participate in broader ways by hosting shoe box packing parties. Even if you don’t have time to shop for and pack a shoe box gift, you can build a shoe box online for a suggested donation of $25.
www.samaritanspurse.ca
CURE International
CURE International is a worldwide, non-profit organization with charitable hospitals and programs for children with conditions like clubfoot, bowed legs, cleft lip, burns, and hydrocephalus. Patients and their families receive the life-changing message of God's love along with surgical treatment regardless of gender, religion, or ethnicity.
You can donate as a CURE Hero with a monthly gift of $25, help support a CURE staff member, give a one-time financial donation, or even donate non-cash gifts of property.
cure.org
Toys For Tots
Toys for Tots is a U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Program that collects new, unwrapped toys during October, November and December each year, and distributes those toys as Christmas gifts to children in the community in which the campaign is conducted.
Toys for Tots is a top-rated charity providing toys, books and gifts to less fortunate children. Learn more now about how you can donate a new toy or give a donation to help make Christmas a little brighter for a needy child in your community.
www.toysfortots.org
Newborns in Need
Clothing for the tiniest children
Four years ago, single mom Sue T. delivered her son Daron 14 weeks early. She was poor, alone, and by her own admission, "jaded and cynical." After searching everywhere for affordable clothing that would fit her preemie, she learned about Newborns in Need, which provides clothing and blankets for poor and premature babies.
"When the boxes arrived with the supplies I needed, it restored my faith in humanity," Sue recalls. Her situation improved, and today, she is a volunteer with the organization, helping other women and infants.
Last year, Newborns in Need volunteers distributed more than 350,000 pieces of clothing and baby gear to 2,000 hospitals, shelters, and families across the country. The organization is looking for donations of blankets, sleepers, gowns, all-in-ones, hats, booties, bottles, pacifiers, and disposable diapers.
KABOOM!
Safe playgrounds for everyone...
When 3-year-old Faith Tinoco was starting school back in 2002, her parents were worried that their daughter, born with Down syndrome, wouldn't be able to play along with the other kids at Melody Park Christian School, in Salinas, California. A year earlier, there would have been cause for concern: The school's playground equipment was outdated and inappropriate for Faith's needs.
But thanks to an organization called Kaboom!, Faith's school had just acquired a new playground -- one that was completely safe and handicapped-accessible. Since 1995, Kaboom! has teamed up with corporate partners to create 546 playgrounds in cities and towns across the country at an average cost of $55,000 each. It has also improved 1,500 existing playgrounds to make them safer.
Health and Education Needs
SOS Children's Villages
A place to call home...
Not long ago, eight siblings in Chicago found themselves alone when their mom went to jail on drug charges and voluntarily terminated her parental rights. An aunt took in the children, then ages 10 months to 12 years, but the arrangement didn't last. Thanks to SOS Children's Villages, the brothers and sisters were able to stay together.
The charity provides homes for 52,000 orphaned or abandoned children in 131 countries, including the U.S. Recently, it expanded its operation in Africa, where the AIDS epidemic has left many kids without parents. Every SOS "village" consists of about ten group homes, each with six to eight children and two adults. The goal is to make each village feel like a community, and each home feel like a family.
Reach Out and Read
A prescription for books...
Most kids dread going to the doctor's office, but Mikela, 2, who lives in a shelter with her mother in rural Vermont, isn't one of them. That's because this little girl's pediatrician participates in Reach Out and Read, a unique literacy program that distributes books to needy children at each of their regular checkups.
The organization, which trains doctors and nurses to educate parents about the value of reading, provides books to an estimated 1.7 million kids each year. It accepts donations of money and of gently used books, and it is currently seeking volunteers to staff doctors' waiting rooms, to help kids with reading.
Project Linus
Blanketing kids with care...
Every child needs a security blanket -- especially kids who are seriously ill or who've undergone some kind of trauma. Project Linus makes sure that these children have something to snuggle up with. Volunteers create homemade, washable blankets of all sizes and styles and distribute them to kids "in need of a big hug." Since 1995, Project Linus has given 673,000 blankets to children in countries around the world.
If you want to contribute a homemade blanket, the organization offers patterns on its Website and provides links to local chapters. Blankets can be quilts, comforters, fleece throws, afghans, or receiving blankets, in child-friendly colors. Cash donations to help defray distribution costs are also welcome.
Giving is always better than receiving especially if you bless a little child in need at Christmas time ( or any time ). For very little money or very little effort you can put a smile on a little one's face and forever in their heart. You give them a special add-on when they open up their gift... you give them the gift hope and that gift is has no pricetag.
Thank you for considering charitable giving. It is such a wonderful thing to sit down with your own child and donate something to those less fortunate. These are memories that that your child and the one (s) they reach out to will never ever forget. Blessings to you!
Thank you for considering charitable giving. It is such a wonderful thing to sit down with your own child and donate something to those less fortunate. These are memories that that your child and the one (s) they reach out to will never ever forget. Blessings to you!
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