Alternative Wedding Lists & Ethical Wedding Gifts
You’re planning to blow a fortune on your wedding day and feeling a bit guilty about it? No need – the growth in alternative, ethical wedding lists mean that the money spent on your wedding gifts can help someone in the third world. A great idea, yes, but where do you start and what schemes are available?
Oxfam Unwrapped
Oxfam Unwrapped showcases gifts that solve the traditional wedding present dilemma. As well as goats (£24 each) and chickens (£10 for a brood of 10), more than 900 bicycles have been purchased along with almost 2,700 sets of 50 tree seedlings.
The initiative helps people to give twice – once to the happy couple and secondly directly to those who need it most. Oxfam will use the funds to purchase the specified item or service and tackle poverty in communities around the world.
“Goats and chickens have captured the imagination of many people,” said Douglas Graham, new products manager at Oxfam. “People like the idea of giving something so unusual. They can also see how goats, chickens, bicycles and seedlings can make a real difference to people struggling against poverty.”
Goats, which are sourced locally by Oxfam, provide nutritious milk, offspring and manure for crops. They can also be sold in times of great need. The animals are provided to villagers in need and the first female kid produced is returned to the village to be allocated to others. Chickens, which are easy to care for, provide eggs and chicks.
“The principle behind Oxfam Unwrapped is to make giving fun, innovative and informative,” added Douglas Graham. “Original presents are hard to find – we’re offering interesting and novel gifts that will help a good cause at the same time. Every gift makes a difference whether you spend £10 or £100.”
World Vision
The Alternative Gift Catalogue from World Vision offers a real way for supporters to buy gifts for their friends and family. It also provides families and communities in the developing world with a way to work their way out of poverty.
World Vision is a Christian charity and one of the world’s leading relief and development agencies, currently helping more than 100 million people in nearly 100 countries in their struggle against poverty, hunger and injustice, irrespective of their religions beliefs.
How it works - The UK recipient gets a gift certificate printed in a personalised card - each card is digitally printed to celebrate the wedding, birthday or other special occasion.
The actual gifts - goats (£13), mosquito nets (£5)or fish farms (£23) are provided through World Vision via the long term programmes in the developing world. The communities World Vision work with request all the gifts in the catalogue.
World Vision say "By choosing alternative gifts you are making a truly lasting difference to families in poverty around the world. Instead of worrying about doubling up on gifts or finding all the interesting gifts are gone from the wedding list, your guests can easily order a gift from World Vision, who will dispatch within 24 hours a beautiful customised wedding card to either the guest or the couple directly. What a great gift to give a newly married couple as they start their new life together!"
Newly weds Joanna and Lindsay Marshall, from Nelson in Lancashire, said, ‘We chose malaria tablets and chickens over a blender for our wedding gifts!’
Joanna explained, ‘We were already living together and had everything we needed. We knew these gifts would help others. We also sponsor a child in Africa called Nicolas through World Vision. We would never have used something like a blender and our guests thought it was a great idea to benefit others!’
Great wedding gifts include a Cheese Making Kit (£17) to provide a family in Sudan with a new source of income, and Reunite a Child with their Family (£46) to reunite street children in Cambodia with their family. For a groom who is crazy about fishing, get Fish Stock for 6 Families (£17) to provide fish for a new fish farm. Or for a gardening bride, give a Sri Lankan family a healthy start with Seeds, Tools and Training to Set up a Garden (£21).
World Vision’s Alternative Gift Catalogue has a range of over 70 gifts to choose from, which will directly benefit nineteen of World Vision’s community projects in poor countries across Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia, as well as gifts that really save the day for use in major disasters and emergency aid situations.
Some useful links and other ethical gift providers:
Give It Gifts is an online 'individual gift' service, where you can make a one-off selection of a gift to celebrate someone's birthday, a wedding, or any event you care to think of.
Fair Trade on eBay - Not just coffee and bananas, discover the wide range of Fair Trade products available through eBay sellers.
Friends of the Earth - Green Weddings - Make your wedding a special day - for you and the planet.
'With this Conflict-Free Diamond, I thee Wed' - Guardian Unlimited - Lucy Siegle reports on the growth of ethical weddings and explains how she ended up having an organic marriage herself
Give a gift that makes a difference. Buy an inspirational gift from UNICEF A range of unique cards and gifts from UNICEF. Every purchase you make will make a real difference to the world’s most vulnerable children.
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