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Gifts that really are twice as nice
by Alberta Lindsey
Looking for holiday gifts for boomers who already have everything? How about a one-of-a-kind piece of jewelry made from a recycled soda can by an artisan in Kenya or a picture frame carved from rich reddish-brown shesham wood in India?
When you purchase a gift from Ten Thousand Villages, you actually give two gifts: One goes to the recipient. The other helps provide fair wages for artisans in developing countries.
The shop at 3201 W. Cary St. in Richmond’s Carytown district is chock-full with handmade gifts, jewelry, personal accessories and home decor items from 36 developing countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East, says Karin Taylor, executive director and store manager.
“It’s a great place to Christmas shop,” she said. Nativity scenes and other holiday decorations are popular at this time of year, and
the different interpretations of the Nativity are interesting. “A Nativity from Kenya is quite different from one made in Peru. We have a lot
of people coming in collecting those items.”
Ten Thousand Villages is a nonprofit mission project started by the Mennonite Church in 1946. There are 175 stores in the United States and Canada.
The Richmond shop, which opened in 1994, has five staff members and 85 volunteers, Taylor said. She is always looking for volunteers to help unpack arriving items, help on the sales floor and present educational programs.
Ten Thousand Villages pays for the items before they are shipped to the U.S., “so we don’t have artisans waiting for their products to
sell before they are paid,” Taylor added.
Ten Thousand Villages
Contact: Karin Taylor, (804) 358-5170,
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
.
www.tenthousandvillages.com.
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Alberta Lindsey is a Richmond freelance writer.
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MORE WAYS TO GIVE TWICE
While Ten Thousand Villages is the only area shop of its kind, many organizations have volunteer opportunities or allow people to honor family and friends through donations. Among them:
Christian Children’s Fund:
Give a goat to a family in Zambia or a head flashlight to a Honduran midwife who delivers babies at night, among many items from the CCF Gifts of Love & Hope Catalog.
(800) 776-6767
www.christianchildrensfund.org/gifts
Heifer International:
Fights global hunger and poverty by providing livestock to farmers in developing countries
(800) 422-0474
www.heifer.org
Richmond Metropolitan Habitat for Humanity:
Volunteers help build houses for low-income families
(804) 232-7001
www.habitat.org
ElderHomes:
Repairs homes of elderly people
(804) 233-2827
www.elderhomes.org
Hope for Humanity Inc.:
Provides high school education for southern Sudanese
(804) 784-3830
www.hopeforhumanityinc.org
Goodwill Thrift Stores:
Provide job training and resell donated items
(804) 745-6300
www.goodwill.org
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