We often hear that our financial donations can do major feats such as feed hungry children or provide medical supplies to impoverished people. But did you know your money can also provide everyday things you probably take for granted, such as air or water? For the price of a dinner for two, for example, you can supply a family with an income-producing beehive. Here are 10 other simple items that, if given as gifts, can transform entire countries.
heifer.org
For less than an Andrew Jackson, you can give fruit-tree saplings—apple, pear, plum and cherry—and help a family grow their own food for years to come.
worldvision.org In many countries, getting clean water isn’t as easy as turning on a faucet. But did you know that for the price of a new Wii game you can help change the fact that 4,000 children die every day because of a lack of clean water?
worldvision.org
Just two chickens can be a source of protein for a family and a source of income to help meet other needs. Who knew these little birds could provide so much for so little?
esuubi.org.uk
Chalk it up to grace. Most of us think chalkboards are staples in every classroom, but they’re not. You can help a school get its first one.
heifer.org
Deforestation has ravaged certain areas of the world, adversely affecting oxygen levels and many life-sustaining plants. Trees are essential to the life-giving cycle, and deforestation in some areas has created major gaps in this important ecosystem. You can help reverse the trend by putting trees in areas in need.
sendacow.org
Yes, it may be only a flyswatter to you, but it could be a lifesaver to a family whose entire village is infested with bugs that, if not fended off, could cause illness and even death to people and livestock.
esuubi.org.uk While some students are spending hundreds of dollars on textbooks every semester, you can change lives by sending a textbook to an impoverished nation for only $8.
sendacow.org
Like a good man, good dirt can be hard to find. Helping families build “keyhole,” or raised-bed, gardens in areas where soil is poor or thin can benefit them in numerous ways.
sendacow.org
Not those kinds of kids … but goats. To an impoverished family, these animals are a great source of milk, meat and, um, “fertilizer.”
heifer.org
You and your church could change a community for generations to come by gifting a village 15 pairs of animals, including sheep, goats and cows, that will continue to reproduce for years and years. Don’t just change a life; change a city—for a lifetime.
Ron Allen 
Gary Curtis 
