For Mother’s Day I want to help another Mum keep her child alive.

Inspired Gifts from UNICEF

What is the best gift for a Mum on Mother’s Day? I usually get treated to a lie in and a day of not lifting a finger with homemade cards and flowers. A lovely family day! Some people enjoy being wined and dined, a show or even jewellery and I don’t begrudge any of them, us Mothers work damn hard you know!

Some information I was sent make me rethink about what a Mother really wants for Mothers day and in many areas of the world it is to see her child have a meal, some clean and safe water, a life saving vaccination or a blanket to stave off the cold. This puts a whole new slant on Mother’s Day for me.

UNICEF run an amazing scheme called Inspired Gifts. You might have heard me mention something this before as I tried to help raise awareness of it at Christmas. Basically you can choose to buy a gift for your loved ones that helps someone else keep theirs. A nutritional UNICEF Inspired gift really can make that difference.

It is unbelievable to me that in this day and age Mums are having to bury their children because they are dying from malnutrition or illness that ordinarily wouldn’t kill a healthy child but which can’t be fought off by a baby or young child who is basically starving.

You can buy a gift such as some magic milk which is just £12 (the price of a decent bunch of flowers at a supermarket). This life saving milk is used in the treatment of children with severe malnutrition in refuge camps, hospitals and emergency feeding centres.

Buying an emergency gift which costs £18 (a bottle of wine and some flowers) will provide UNICEF with the funds to provide clean water, supplies including medications and other essential kit to areas who are in a dire emergency situation.

For those who really do feel they need to give something they can wrap up, why not choose a gift from the UNICEF shop? There are some gorgeous and useful items there which would make a fantastic Mothers Day gift and the funds raised still go towards helping those who need help the most.

I have asked Roy to help the boys choose me something from the Inspired Gift range (I have my eye on the nutritional biscuits). On Mothers Day I will be able to cuddle up in bed with my boys knowing that another Mum across the world can still hold her children.

Please visit the UNICEF website and choose a truly Inspired Gift this Mother’s Day.

 

Christmas – two packs of chicken or a life?

Earlier this month I was invited to visit the UNICEF supply division in Copenhagen to see what goes on there, and why. Sadly I wasn’t able to make it but I am able to fill you in on what is going on over there.

Christmas in many ways has become hideously commercial; it’s all about the shiny gadgets and designer names. When you take a step back and think about those who will be fighting for their lives on Christmas Day due to malnutrition or the women who will die in childbirth due to having no medical supplies to help with birth, it put a different slant on things.

This year, instead of buying another box of chocolates and smellies, why not buy a friend an inspired gift from UNICEF. Inspired gifts are life-saving supplies and tools sent to areas in need. The Copenhagen centre is the hub from which essential supplies are sent around the world to those in need.

Forget the ribbons and wrapping, this year why not send something different in lieu of a gift to someone else, or just one small Inspired Gift from your family, to those in need.

You don’t have to break the bank either….

 

Click to enlarge and read how Inspired Gifts really work

With the help of consumers around the world UNICEF bought $1.955 BILLION worth of supplies in 2010 and delivered them to 190 countries by boat, plane, truck, van, donkey, bicycle and on foot. What a huge achievement, thanks largely to people like yourself who give a little and help a lot.

Buy someone an alternative *inspired* gift this year or request one yourself instead of a wrapped gift.

 

UNICEF’s full range of Cards, Gifts and Inspired Gifts* are available exclusively online here or by calling 0844 888 5505.

If you really do want to help but prefer to have something wrapped up to give, then have a look at the Unicef shop which packed with beautiful ethically made gifts. It all helps.

Give a little if you can this Christmas, or ask for one of your presents to be an inspired gift this year and you can quite literally save lives.

 

* Each UNICEF Inspired Gift purchase comes complete with an exclusive Gift Card, which can be personalised and delivered to your choice of UK postal address.