A pig in a poke, this little piggy? Hardly. He’s more of a piggy bank. In many countries in Southeast Asia, pork is an important source of nutrition and income. Pigs give birth to large litters of young, allowing farmers to keep those they need and sell the rest for money which can then be spent on the important things in life, such as education and medicines. Pig manure is also a particularly good fertilizer for paddy fields. And as such, a pig is a gift that can change the world – or at least, the livelihoods of poor farmers in Laos and Vietnam.
Norwegian Church Aid’s online gift shop "Gifts that change the world" sells a variety of different farm animals as well as mosquito netting, water pumps, solar panels and schoolbooks. All are used in Norwegian Church Aid’s projects that work to help improve quality of life for people in developing countries around the world. While the prices are authentic – 130 Norwegian Kroner for a pig, 90 Kroner for a bed net, and so on – the actual gifts are symbolic. When a donor gives us 130 Kroner towards a pig, we don’t actually send a pig to Laos. To keep administration costs as low as possible, and to ensure that our projects run according to need, and not to Christmas gift fashion in Norway, we make sure that the money is spent on one of our international projects, without specifying which.
Since the launch of our online gift shop in 2006, a great many Norwegians have either given or received pigs, goats and other gifts from Norwegian Church Aid. However, let’s not forget: the gift card under the tree may show a picture of a goat, but the real gift – a donation to Norwegian Church Aid’s work around the world – goes to those who need it most.
You can visit our gift shop here (Norwegian language only):
http://www.gaversomforandrerverden.no