Give an Alternative Gift This Holiday Season | Microfinancing Partners In Africa

Give hope this holiday

Alternative gifts represent funding to one of MPA’s five program areas. They are a profound way to give a gift to a loved one, while at the same time giving a hand up to help someone climb out of poverty. These gifts give twice—they celebrate the recipient and they change lives in Africa.

Select an Alternative Gift

Are you tired of giving yet another ugly sweater? When you give an alternative gift you are directly impacting a community that needs it most. Each donation is tax-deductible, supports programs that need it most and makes a lasting impression.

Your Gift Changes Lives

When you make a donation by purchasing an alternative gift we are able to continue the mission of our programs that benefit hardworking families throughout Africa.

Share the Hope

When you purchase an alternative gift, we will provide you with a downloadable card to gift to your honoree.

Cow Program

How your gift makes a difference

Your gift could help make a difference for another family like Joseph and Christina’s family, who prepared their farm, planted grass, built a shed, and received a living loan of a pregnant cow from MPA. Now they have better nutrition, extra income from the milk, a more productive farm, and hope. They will make a gift as well when they pass on the first female calf to another farming family.

Whether purchasing a herd of cows, one cow or a “happy tail” to support the Cow Program, your gift will ensure a qualified family will receive a cow.

$8,000 - Herd of 10 Cows

Your gift of a herd of cows will change not just one family but an entire community.

$800 - One Cow

Your gift helps a trained and prepared family receive a living loan.

$50 - Happy Tail

Your gift will be combined with others to total the gift of a cow for a family in need.

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Clean Water Program

Give Health to a Community

The gift of water can make a difference for another family like Namne’s family, who saved and built a school but needed to provide clean water. A small loan for a water filter helped her provide clean water to her students. She will make a gift as well when she repays her water loan, funding clean water for another family.

Unclean water is the greatest common threat to life, health, education, and economic advancement among the people we strive to help.

$500 - Water for a School

Contaminated water is a leading contributor to child deaths. Your gift will give clean water to a school of 300 students making a big SPLASH in saving lives.

$60 - One Water Filter

In many communities throughout Africa children have to walk miles to get clean water. Provide clean water for an entire family with a filter.

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Safe Woman Program

Helping women in africa

Our Safe Woman Program addresses the high obstetric fistula rate and high rate of maternal-fetal mortality in the Masaka region of Uganda.

Your gift could make a difference for a post fistula woman like Nasakka who suffered an obstetric fistula injury in childbirth. She received training in the raising of pigs, built a shed, and received a living loan of a piglet. Now she has income from the sale of piglets, better nutrition, and hope. She will make a gift as well when she passes on two piglets back to the program.

$2,000 - Ultrasound Machine

Give the gift of safety by providing an ultrasound machine to detect high-risk pregnancies.

$200 - One Piglet

Give one piglet for our Safe Woman Program which aids women in creating a sustainable income for themselves.

$100 - One SWAP Loan

Give women who have suffered an obstetric fistula a small loan to start a business.

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Loans Program

Support an Entrepreneur

Entrepreneurs find their start up here. Members must begin by saving and may borrow two times the amount they have saved. Small groups of 3-5 vouch for each other, guaranteeing each other’s loans. Your gift could make a difference for a woman like Doris who saved, borrowed twice what she had in savings, and received a small loan to start a grocery. Now she says, “I will always be grateful because this made it possible for me to feed my family.” She will make a gift as well when she repays her loan, which makes the funding available to another person striving to start a small income project.

$400 - Green Grocery Stand

Help support an eager entrepreneur begin their grocery stand business.

$90 - 150 lbs of Potatoes

Help an entrepreneur start their business with three bags of potatoes to sell.

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Loans Program

Help a Group Income Project

Your gift could make a difference to a self help group like the Welezo Friends who have saved together, and when they have enough, they give loans to each member to build their income projects. As the loans are repaid to the group with interest, bigger loans can be given. Your gift boost their savings and boost their projects.

Here come the rabbits! Small self-help groups work together to create and sustain income-generating business activities. In Tanzania, women are raising rabbits. One doe can produce 36 kits (baby rabbits) each year, which can be sold at 4 months old for $13 each. As a group project, many women and their families can benefit.

$1,000 - One Group Income Project

Aid one group seeking to better their community through microfinance.

$160 - Rabbit Hatchery

Help fund the materials needed to build a small pen for a rabbit project.

$40 - Three Rabbits

Help fund the rabbits to start a rabbit raising-and-selling group project.

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Give a Sewing Machine - $100

Your gift could make a difference to a person like Neema who joined a revolving loan support group, prepared, and received a small loan which helped her purchase a sewing machine. Now she has a thriving tailoring business and is thinking of hiring. Her repayment of her loan funds a hand up to other women in the revolving fund group.

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Give a Boat - $ 600

Your gift could make a difference to another entrepreneur like Liliana, who first saved and then took a small loan to start an income project. After growing her business, she now has financed a fishing boat. Now she has a good income and dreams of adding a soda machine to her lake-side business.

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Education Program

Help Keep Girls in School

Students whose families struggle in extreme poverty, or who are orphans, are provided access to quality education. Some students may even be religious sisters whose families would normally be expected to fund their education, but may come from extreme poverty. An educational scholarship is made to fund primary, secondary, vocational school, university, and even medical school. In addition to learning about microfinancing, students pay their scholarships forward through mentoring or other age-appropriate service or activities at their schools.

$1,000 - One Year Scholarship

A one year scholarship includes room, board, uniforms, and books.

$180- - Fund a Primary Teacher for One Month

Keep the classrooms open by supporting a hardworking teacher.

$30 - One School Uniform

Ensure a child can attend school by providing a school uniform.

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Emergency Relief

Supply Food and Emergency Medical Care

With the COVID-19 pandemic, the need is great. It has put additional stress on many families already living in poverty in Africa. Curfews have resulted in loss of income and food shortages as well as difficulty in securing transportation for women in labor. Give the gift of HOPE today.

$300 - Sanitation Supplies

Provide sanitation (soap, masks) supplies for a group to share with neighbors.

$200 - Feed a Family for 8 Weeks

Fund a forgivable loan to help a family secure food for the next 8 weeks.

$20 - Ambulance Ride

Give a ride to a woman seeking emergency medical care.

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Favorite Holiday Gifts

A Hand Up with a Handcrafted Gift

Feel like you need to have something to wrap? We can help you there, too! Choose from gifts that benefit MPA and our partners! Quantities are limited, so contact us soon. Email jgundlach@microfinancingafrica.org or call 314-776-1319 to arrange a purchase to be shipped to you!

African Face Mask

Stay safe with a two layer mask sewn by MPA volunteers with African fabric. Designs vary.
$10

African Key Chain

Choose from one of 2 styles of keychain for a quick and easy stocking-stuffer Designs vary. $5

African Clutch

Each one-of-a-kind, fabric and straw clutch is handmade by a member of partner projects in Nairobi Kenya. Available in a variety of color combinations.
$30

Paper Bead Necklace

Colorful paper bead necklace made by the women Of St. Joseph Mathale umbrella group. Colors and lengths vary.
$15

Maasai Style Beaded Earrings

Colorful hand-beaded African earrings available in either circle or tassel options.
$15

Christmas Card

Enjoy a pack of these unique Christmas cards to share with friends and family has a holiday greeting. Each pack of cards includes 10.
$10

MPA T-Shirt

Blue “Moji Sofi” shirt. Moji Sofi is Swahili for clean water— one of our hopes is that all of Subsaharan Africa has access to clean water someday.
$15

Leather Beaded Bracelet

Hand-beaded leather snap bracelets – available in either 1 inch or 1/2 inch widths.
$10

Small Basket

These approximately 6 inch baskets are handwoven by the women of BUWEA– a women’s loan collective in Bukoba, Tanzania.
$15

African Ornament

Choose from either bird, talking stick, or Maasai warrior variety– or get one of each to decorate your tree!
$10

MPA T-shirt

Burgundy shirt shows MPA tagline “From Poverty to Possibility”.
$15

Coffee

This 100% Arabica, single origin African coffee, is grown on the slopes of Mt. Elgon, in the Bugisu region. It has a clean, bold taste with hints of bittersweet chocolate. 100% of the profits go to providing clean drinking water. 12oz. bag.
$14

One Potato Two

One Potato Two is the story of Mumbi, a young girl growing up in Kenya where the struggle to overcome extreme poverty is a daily reality. Learn how a small loan creates a big change in the life of her family.
$15

Holy Cow

Holy Cow is the story of Maria who lives in Uganda, Africa. With the gift of a living loan, Maria’s family now has a sustainable income to help provide for their basic needs.
$15

Our Community

Don’t feel sorry for us, invest in us. Not even the sky is the limit

Janet Bettt, Kenya
Where there is hope, there is no room to be tired.

Edward, Uganda
We visited Mutukulu Slum in Nairobi, Kenya with our partner Yawezekana SACCO. We met a woman who had received a small Tumaini loan. Her business was selling a few sheets of toilet paper to whoever might need them as they entered the public toilet. She had the pvc chair she sat on, the roll of toilet paper, and her determination.

Julie Gundlach, Development Coordinator
We used to sit around and curse the world, but now we are too busy with our income projects.

Women of Kamondo, Tanzania