NEWS FROM
LUTHERAN WORLD RELIEF
December 5, 2005
For more information contact Emily Sollie at esollie@lwr.org or 410-230-2802.
In this news release:
- For Meaningful Holiday Gifts, Look to Lutheran World Relief
FOR MEANINGFUL HOLIDAY GIFTS, LOOK TO LUTHERAN WORLD RELIEF
Baltimore, December 5, 2005 — Looking for a special holiday gift for your family and friends that will also help make a difference in the world? Look no further than Lutheran World Relief.
Through LWR’s alternative giving program, the LWR Community Quilt, you can give your loved ones a gift of peace; of health; of justice. Your donation to the LWR Community Quilt – a symbolic representation of LWR’s work — supports one of twelve different facets of LWR’s work in the developing world. A gift of $40, for example, can provide water filters for four families in the Philippines, or send two AIDS orphans in Uganda to school for a year. With an $80 donation, you can help a Sudanese refugee woman learn to read and do basic math.
When you make a donation to the LWR Community Quilt as a gift in honor of a friend or relative, the person receives a gift card acknowledging that a gift has been made in their honor. E-cards are available, as are paper cards that we will either mail directly to the honoree, or to the giver in order to personalize the card. See http://quilt.lwr.org/ for more information on the LWR Community Quilt, made possible in part by generous support from Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.
For something more tangible, why not give one of LWR’s Fair Trade products? Beautiful handmade items like toys, jewelry, ornaments, Nativities, textiles, baskets and more are available through the LWR Handcraft Project (http://www.lwr.org/handcraft/personalorder.asp). When you shop through the LWR Handcraft Project, you receive beautiful handcrafts and ensure that the artisans are paid fairly for their products and treated with respect. Your purchase provides income, dignity and hope to artisans and their families.
By purchasing coffee, tea or cocoa through the LWR Coffee Project (http://www.lwr.org/coffee/) and chocolate through the LWR Chocolate Project (http://www.lwr.org/chocolate/), you can give delicious gourmet products while also ensuring that farmers get a fair price for their crops. Choose from several different roasts and flavors of coffee and tea; and white, dark, or milk chocolate, with or without nuts!
Give a gift this year that reflects your values and embodies the true spirit of the holiday – and helps support Lutheran World Relief and our work toward a world where everyone lives in justice, peace and dignity.
WHO IS LWR? Lutheran World Relief, an international nonprofit organization, works to end poverty and injustice by empowering some of the world's most impoverished communities to help themselves. With partners in 35 countries, LWR seeks to promote sustainable development with justice and dignity by helping communities bring about change for healthy, safe and secure lives; engage in Fair Trade; promote peace and reconciliation; and respond to emergencies. LWR is headquartered in Baltimore, Md. and has worked in international development and relief since 1945.
Lutheran World Relief is a ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS), individuals and parish groups in international relief, development, advocacy and social responsibility.
