I Don't Want A Present - Make A Difference This Xmas Instead!

I admit that I am a big scrooge when it comes to Xmas, which is actually mostly about the fuss and waste of it all. I despair at the amount of money people throw away at things like decorations, the excessive electricity bills (let alone the waste of the non-renewable resource to generate it!) of Xmas lights, and then all the meaningless gifts.

Even things bought with the very best intentions can be such a waste for someone on a tight budget. Or when you remember that so many people in our communities have so very little.

It saddens and maddens me!

As a blogger this year, though, I was approached by One Girl and told about their Xmas solution to all of this. The very same organisation that had us racing around in school dresses last year at the cricket have come up with I Don't Want A Present.

Funds raised through the donation page are working towards assisting to repair the school in small town Ronietta in Sierra Leone that is in ruin, is unsafe, and will be closed down by the government.  The goal of $50,000 will complete the school rebuild. Each $195 will get one of these kids back into school.

I don't need to comment about how important schooling is to each of us, and the opportunities that an education brings. The 10 year war in Sierra Leone has seen some 1200 school burnt down, and if a slim sliver of our Xmas cheer budget for drinks, and token gifts, and a trimming or two could be re-channelled, lives could be changed.

That sounds like what the notion of Xmas should be more about to me!

So instead of Xmas cards, and postage. Or token treats or weird traditional foods people don't actually eat anymore. Or rather than that half-thought out gift to someone you know could just buy what you were getting them, if they really wanted it, please kick in to my I Don't Want A Present.