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.
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.
When you purchase an alternative gift, we will provide you with a downloadable card to gift to your honoree.
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.
Your gift of a herd of cows will change not just one family but an entire community.
Your gift helps a trained and prepared family receive a living loan.
Your gift will be combined with others to total the gift of a cow for a family in need.
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.
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.
In many communities throughout Africa children have to walk miles to get clean water. Provide clean water for an entire family with a filter.
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.
Give the gift of safety by providing an ultrasound machine to detect high-risk pregnancies.
Give one piglet for our Safe Woman Program which aids women in creating a sustainable income for themselves.
Give women who have suffered an obstetric fistula a small loan to start a business.
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.
Help support an eager entrepreneur begin their grocery stand business.
Help an entrepreneur start their business with three bags of potatoes to sell.
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.
Aid one group seeking to better their community through microfinance.
Help fund the materials needed to build a small pen for a rabbit project.
Help fund the rabbits to start a rabbit raising-and-selling group project.
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.
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.
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.
A one year scholarship includes room, board, uniforms, and books.
Keep the classrooms open by supporting a hardworking teacher.
Ensure a child can attend school by providing a school uniform.
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.
Provide sanitation (soap, masks) supplies for a group to share with neighbors.
Fund a forgivable loan to help a family secure food for the next 8 weeks.
Give a ride to a woman seeking emergency medical care.
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!
Stay safe with a two layer mask sewn by MPA volunteers with African fabric. Designs vary.
$10
Choose from one of 2 styles of keychain for a quick and easy stocking-stuffer Designs vary. $5
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
Colorful paper bead necklace made by the women Of St. Joseph Mathale umbrella group. Colors and lengths vary.
$15
Colorful hand-beaded African earrings available in either circle or tassel options.
$15
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
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
Hand-beaded leather snap bracelets – available in either 1 inch or 1/2 inch widths.
$10
These approximately 6 inch baskets are handwoven by the women of BUWEA– a women’s loan collective in Bukoba, Tanzania.
$15
Choose from either bird, talking stick, or Maasai warrior variety– or get one of each to decorate your tree!
$10
Burgundy shirt shows MPA tagline “From Poverty to Possibility”.
$15
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 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 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
Don’t feel sorry for us, invest in us. Not even the sky is the limit
Where there is hope, there is no room to be tired.
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.
We used to sit around and curse the world, but now we are too busy with our income projects.
to lift themselves out of poverty with dignity and respect.