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Tired of meaningless throwaway Christmas gifts? ALWS Gifts of Grace are a simple way you can restore the true joy of Christmas – by helping others, and sharing your values with those you care about.
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a s Bl e s No Santas or here. Your Grace Card features a drawing tmreindeers si ris from a child at Kakuma Refugee Camp, showing a very special kind of ‘Christmas Tree’. Inside the Grace Card is a press-out traditional Chrismon to be hung on the Christmas Tree.
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You receive a Grace Card and Grace Sheet for each gift, and these become your meaning-filled Christmas gift to family and friends.
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Meet Zinash: fuellin
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“My name is Zinash Begna. I am the leader of this group. We make fuel-efficient stoves. We were part of an LWF program for income-generating activity. To make one stove:
For myself, I use the profits I make to serve my family, and we also build up savings in the bank.
My husband is happy I am working here because I contribute to the family income. We also have a clothes shop where my husband works.
• 4 shovels of red ash (volcanic soil) • 3 shovels of cement • 40 litres of water (two jerry-cans) You have to be strong to do this work. We have it four or five times, to mix left to right, then right to left. This takes one hour. Then we bring in the moulds put the mix in, and then compact it. This only takes minutes for each five mould.
ce works:
I would like to thank you for supportin g us.
I believe
that if you have willingness to work, you can do many things, even if it is hard. Those who say this is only man’s work is the one who is not willing to work. For us it is easy, because we know it is importan t. Together, we are helping our families and preserving the environment."
There are six moulds of different shapes stove Then, it is for each left to cure for one week. We must water it each day. People come to our shed to buy them. It sells for 1000 Birr ($12 AUD). LWF own the building. It is right alongsid station, so many e a large bus people can see and buy our stoves. In our group, there are three women and one man. In week, we can make a 10 stoves. I do this business because I want to help our community reduce carbon emission s. [60% reduction in emissions]
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I also want to help fix human health, so women don’t get diseases of the eyes and chest from the smoke.
to view the QR Code visit or r catalogue .au/grace ww.alws.org
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Each Gifts of Grace you choose has an individual Grace Sheet. This shows the gift you have chosen, shares the story of someone blessed by that gift, and then explains how the gift goes to work in everyday life. The Grace Sheet fits snugly inside the Grace Card, making it a very special gift.
FUEL-EFFICIENT STOVE
Australian Lutheran PO BOX 488 • Albury World Service (ALWS) • NSW 2640 • 1300 763 407 alws.org.au • ABN 70 679 042 169
FICIENT FUEL-EF E STOV
help "Truly I tell you, whatever you did I also want toof the eyes and chest from for one of the least ses of these brothers get disea and sisters of mine, you did for me." —Jesus (Matthe w 25:40)
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e (ALWS) 407 World Servic Lutheran • 1300 763 Australian NSW 2640 • Albury • 042 169 PO BOX 488 rg.au • ABN 70 679 alws.o
The first 500 Gifts of Grace orders receive a beautiful Cross Bookmark, hand-woven from banana fibre by a Women’s Self-Help Group in Nepal. After the Nepal Flood Disaster, your Cross Bookmark will be an even more precious reminder of the power of your kindness.
As you look through your Gifts of Grace catalogue, you’ll see how your Christmas kindness takes children and families on a journey of hope:
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Photo: ALWS
This Christmas, many of us will sing the old carol ‘Joy to the World’. Look around you, though, and it can be hard to see too much joy. Natural disasters. Poverty. Conflict. It’s easy to feel the problems of the world are too big … … and you’re too small, to make an impact. Yet look through this ALWS Gifts of Grace catalogue, and you’ll see how even a few dollars can help transform someone’s life. Porridge for children in a refugee camp. A goat for a family in Nepal or South Sudan. Seeds to plant a veggie patch. Your simple acts of kindness can start lifechange for someone this Christmas. What’s special is that as you bless someone far away …
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… you also bless those close to you. When you give them the Gifts of Grace you have chosen for them, they will see the values you hold precious. That’s how kindness grows. ALWS has 76 years of experience providing life-transforming care in some of the toughest places in the world, following the example of Jesus in seeking out those forgotten.
Perhaps starting with a cup of porridge for a child in a refugee camp. The porridge may not taste the best (there’s not enough money for sugar, or even salt) … … but it may be the best meal a refugee child has all day. The high protein factor keeps children healthy, and helps them stay focused at school.
When families are forced to flee their homes, all they can take is what they can carry in their arms. For Alsair, that was her babies.
Photo: LWF South Sudan
Through ALWS, you welcome families with essentials like food, blankets and clean water. You may also provide a small cash grant so families can buy what they need most urgently. For Alsair, it was milk for her children.
Cabbages. Tomatoes. Carrots. Vitamins. Minerals. Nutrients. In Burundi or Ethiopia, when you supply a family like Alexis’ with vegetable seeds, you grow much more than veggies: “Before you came, we ate once a day, now we can eat two to three meals a day. Some vegetables we eat, some we share with others, or we sell to others.”
Photo: LWF Burundi
Your seeds, and the training that goes with it, are delivered through a Cooperative system, so families can support and encourage each other. As a Co-op, they can then work on other projects together, like replanting trees, and looking after the elderly.
A simple way you can help a widow mum in South Sudan provide healthy food for her children is with chooks! Not just the chooks themselves, but training in how to raise them, keep them healthy, and coop them so they are safe at night. Photo: LWF South Sudan
Eggs are a vital supplement for children’s diets, and egg-stras (!) can be sold to pay for school and healthcare. Of course, breeding means more eggs, more meat, more money, as this mum from South Sudan shared:
Yohannes is excited to share how your Gifts of Grace gift of farm-grow training in Indonesia is transforming his family’s life: “Before, our harvest was not sufficient, and this made me feel hopeless. I worried about our children’s education.
Photo: CDRM&CDS
During the training, I learned many effective farming techniques, land processing, seed selection, maintenance, and marketing strategies. Armed with this knowledge, I planted sweet corn, eggplant and chillies. Changing the way we farm improved our overall quality of life. The support you give my family is a source of hope and inspiration for us. Every kind act you do has a huge impact on our lives.”
In countries like Myanmar, the term WASH refers to the critical needs of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene. We take these for granted here in Australia …
Even something as simple as diarrhoea can be a killer, as it dehydrates a child’s fragile body. You can protect a child by helping provide essentials like clean water, training in handwashing, proper disposal of waste. This is perhaps the humblest, most basic Gifts of Grace you can give, but when you see it save a child’s life, you know it is also one of the most precious.
Photo: Local Partner, Myanmar
… but in poor communities, every 90 seconds a child under 5 dies because they don’t have WASH*.
Photo: LWF Nepal
*UNICEF – Advocacy Spotlight March 2023, page 2
Without a house, how can you have a home? In Nepal, families from the Dalit community in the past were regarded and treated as ‘untouchable’. Often left without land, they had nowhere safe to build a home. Or were too poor to build a house sturdy enough to resist Nepal’s extreme weather and floods. Your Gifts of Grace can help provide the tools, materials and training so a Dalit family can build or repair a safe place to live. Ongoing ALWS support enables them to build a better life, free of injustice.
Budu Sada is very happy to tell you why your Gifts of Grace for a Water Pump in a village like hers in Nepal is a special blessing: “Before, myself and the women from this community had to go to the Ward pond to wash our clothes, and clean the dishes and utensils. It is 20 minutes walk away. The water in that pond is not safe to consume.
Photo: LWF Nepal
Now we have this water pump close to our houses, and it is easier and provides safe drinking water too. It makes me very happy to have this pump here.”
Photo: LWF Nepal
What makes this gift extra-precious is that Budu is Dalit. Before, Dalit people weren’t able to use the same water source as others, and so had to walk a long way to collect water for their family.
You might smile at talk of toilets, but loos are no laughing matter. One of the biggest threats to children’s health is not having a safe place to go to the toilet. Disease can spread quickly, and be deadly. You provide materials and training for a Long Drop Loo close to home. Here’s how: • Dig a pit: 3 – 6 metres down, around one metre wide • Build a simple shed above to provide privacy • Install vent pipe from pit to 30cm above roof (draft takes away smells) The waste in the pit decomposes driven by aerobic and anaerobic bacteria, and leaches into surrounding soil.
Photo: LWF Kenya
When ALWS asked a class of children at a primary school in Kakuma Refugee Camp what they wanted to be when they grew up, this was their Top 3: • Doctor / Nurse • Teacher • Pastor That’s healing for body (Doctor), brain (Teacher), soul (Pastor). Number 4 was … can you guess? … helicopter pilot. That might seem strange to you … until you realise it was helicopters that brought aid to these children when roads were flooded. Your Gifts of Grace of pencils and paper and schoolbooks bless children with school now … equipping them to bless others – for life!
Can you imagine what it takes to teach a class of 70 children in a refugee camp? Each child has suffered unbearable hardship to reach safety. Seen things no child should see. Lost people they love.
Photo: LWF Somalia
What dedication that must take. Especially when teaching conditions are very basic. And when you yourself are a refugee, and know you may spend 15+ years here before you can go home, or a new country will take you.
You give them practical support for effective teaching, classroom materials, and encouragement they are not alone in caring for the children. That’s a class-y gift!
Photo: ALWS
Joyce is a widow from South Sudan, with two young children. At Kakuma Refugee Camp for ten years, Joyce works in one of the Camp Kitchens your Gifts of Grace can help repair: “I came here because of the war in South Sudan. That war destroyed everything for us. I work here in the kitchen to support my children. We have a lot of challenges. Every day, we cook for so many people—thousands. It’s not easy. We have to carry heavy pots. We must cook without salt because there is not money for that. We need also sugar.
Photo: ALWS
Life here is tough, but I keep pushing because of my children. They are my priority. I really want them to go to school. They are the reason I work so hard. I want them to have opportunities I didn’t have.”
If you had to write on a blackboard the three reasons that school may be the most important help you give a refugee child, you’d write: They learn. Make friends. Have fun. They start to believe life can be ‘normal’ again. The high protein porridge each child receives is the day’s best meal, and helps them concentrate in class. Whatever happens next – going home, to a new country, staying in camp – the child you help is blessed for life. Girls with secondary education are 3 times less likely to marry before age 18 (UNICEF)?
Your Gifts of Grace provides basic teaching materials like chalk, posters, notebooks, so refugee teachers can help children learn skills to change their world.
The Dignity Kit you give a girl in a crisis situation may look simple. Sanitary napkins, soap, underwear, bucket.
Staying home for three or four days each month means she misses out on two months of school each year. This puts her way behind, and in danger of dropping out.
Photo: ALWS
Without a Dignity Kit, the girl you help may have to use rags each month. Often there’s a lack of clean water for washing, so she then faces the threat of UTIs. Your thoughtfulness in giving this simple Gifts of Grace protects a girl from embarrassment, and helps give her the best chance of success at school. That’s precious.
Like to give a Gifts of Grace that reduces fuel emissions by 60%, halves the firewood needed, and protects the health of women?
Photo: ALWS
Zinash, from Ethiopia, shares her ‘recipe’ to make one fuel-efficient stove. You need: • 4 shovels red ash (volcanic soil) • 3 shovels cement • 40 litres of water (two jerry-cans) Method 1. Mix at least four times. This takes one hour. 2. Use six mould shapes for one stove. 3. Put the mix in the mould, then compact it. 4. Cure for one week. Water each day. 5. Remove from mould, and sell. 6. Sale profits support children in school. “Thank you for supporting us. Together we help families and preserve the environment. I believe if you’re willing to work, you can do many things, even if it is hard.”
Photo: LWF Kenya
Cumar was born without arms. His mother died when he was very young. Now 9, Cumar lives with a neighbour at a refugee camp near the Kenyan border with Somalia. Sadly, some people here still feel that a child with a disability cannot succeed in school. Cumar is proof they are wrong:
Cumar’s teacher, Mr. Abdirizak, says: “Disability is not inability. Cumar has a strong sense of self-worth. He can still achieve all his hopes and dreams.”
Photo: LWF Nepal
Your Gifts of Grace shows parents the potential their children with disability have, supports them to go to school, and also provides basic education for parents.
Before someone like you invested in him, Prakash Damai was a bonded farm labourer in Nepal. Your Gifts of Grace supports young people to receive training, equipment and support to build their own business. Prakash received his help in SAKSYAM Project. This means ‘to be capable’ … … and that is exactly what Prakash is proving. He now runs a garment factory, supporting himself and generating jobs for five others. This is a Gifts of Grace that takes vision and patience, and the wisdom to see that a gift to support young entrepreneurs is an investment that can benefit a whole community.
Photo: ALWS
In countries like Ethiopia, firewood is the only form of fuel poor families can afford. Forests have been left ravaged, and countryside bare. In extreme weather, erosion is severe, and productive soil lost. Your gift of 40 tree-seedlings is the start of restoring the environment … and the beginning of a business for young people working hard to grow a future. They grow: • Coffee Arabica • Neem • Avocado
• Papaya • Moringa
16 year-old Dasju, a group leader, explains:
Photo: ALWS
“It is hard work, but we received good training. We have gained experience, and learned how to manage. We are now confident in ourselves, so I will be ready to have my own business.”
Some Ethiopians call Neem the Christmas Leaf Tree, or Miracle Tree, identifying up to 40 healing properties?
It was Christmas when Meri became a widow. Then came cancer. Yet this brave farmer from Indonesia is committed to give her children education. Your Gifts of Grace can help … “My dream was to go to school, but my parents did not have enough money - even for rice. So, after Grade 4, I had to work in the fields. That’s why I work hard, so my children can stay in school, and not be like me.” Being part of this group, I learnt how to be a better farmer. Now, each crop has improved on the one before. My last harvest yielded 400kg of rice – enough to feed my children and me. I have not had to buy any! Every morning, I wake up and pray to God for the day to go well. I thank you for what you do to help people like me.”
Photo: LWF South Sudan
A fresh new way you can help farmers in South Sudan grow food for their families is by teaching methods like Sack Farming. This method takes little room, and uses smaller amounts of water, to grow strong healthy crops of cabbages, okra, cucumber, tomatoes, green peppers, eggplants, spinach, onions, sweet potatoes, carrots, and local vegetables. 1. Half-fill a sack with soil. Add small stones. 2. Fill the sack with soil, adding composted animal manure. 3. Cut zigzag holes in sides of sack. 4. Plant seedlings at sides and top of sack. 5. Water – and watch your veggies grow!
Photo: ALWS
Families can use discarded plastic sacks, helping protect the environment. The Sack method is useful for families forced to live in small spaces, like refugee camps.
Zeytu, a widow in Ethiopia, faced an exciting challenge when the new farming methods she learned, DOUBLED her harvest ... “I received 12.5kg of drought-resistant maize seeds to plant my half hectare of land. We learnt to plant the seed 30cm apart, and 30cm between rows. I also learned how to make and use Heap Compost. Now, my production is double. I can harvest one tonne in a good season. Plus, the quality is better, so the price is also almost double. Your Gifts of Grace teaches women like Zeytu how to be part of a Cooperative Grain Bank, where surplus crop can be stored for lean times … and even be ‘loaned’ to families who run into trouble.
Photo: ALWS
Q: What’s the most precious part of the Gifts of Grace goat you give a family in places like South Sudan and Nepal? cheap and easy to feed take little space birth two to three kids each season rich source of protein and nutrients command good price at market manure creates fantastic fertiliser protect environment by eating weeds all of the above A: All of the above! That’s why goats are a go-to way to help. Give a goat now!
In some countries where you work through ALWS, sheep and goats look so similar, they are known as shoats?
No, this photo doesn’t show an alien invasion.
Photo: LWF South Sudan
It’s a group of farmers in South Sudan being trained in modern beekeeping. Modern beehives can produce twice as much honey as traditional woven basket beehives, with much higher quality honey. That multiplies the income a family honey business can generate – enough for school fees, medical care and home essentials. Your Gifts of Grace can help provide: • Protective gear (as you see in photo) • Smoker • Modern beehives • Training • Marketing training
Photo: LWF Nepal
When you give a Gifts of Grace to help someone build a business, it’s a partnership. Somone like blacksmith, Yagya Luhar, is willing to work very hard to make your investment in him produce great returns – because that means independence for his family:
Photo: CDRM&CDS
‘Fire up’ a range of businesses from blacksmith to hairdressing to café, in countries from Nepal to Burundi, with your Gifts of Grace of training and equipment.
Remaja, from Indonesia, shares why your Gifts of Grace to support someone like her to join a Savings Group can save a family’s life. “When I was young, it was difficult to have food. We would mostly just eat taro. I only went to school until the end of Grade 2. When I was 10, I had to go to work to look after the children of a family. I did this until I was 15. This is just what I had to do to help my family.” “I took my first loan of $50 to start an ice-block business. I paid this back in two months, then took a second loan of $30 to start selling spices. Then I took more loans to build a kiosk shop at my house. This produces $50 profit each month, and pays for my daily needs, supplies electricity, and supports my daughter for university. I even have savings. So, I feel happy and proud.”
Photo: LWF Burundi
Imagine trying to feed your family from what you can grow on half a hectare. You have few tools. No knowledge of modern farming methods. And extreme weather threatens what little you can produce. Plus, you live in one of the five least-developed countries in the world – Burundi. This is where caring Aussies can lend a helping hand. Through an ALWS Burundi Farm Partnership you can support a Cooperative of 15 – 20 families in Burundi to learn modern farming methods, and provide tools and improved seed varieties that can generate increased harvests.
Your partnership investment provides: certified seeds – beans & maize hoes, shovels, machetes, pick-axes, rakes wheelbarrows fertiliser phytosanitary products (for healthy plants)
You partner a Co-op of 20 families, meaning you help 100+ people?
You support training in modern farming: ploughing techniques enough food to feed their families
seeding methods organo-mineral fertilisers pest and disease control
seeds to plant for next season
market gardening composting
surplus to buy household essentials
reforestation contour lines soil water management
and diversify their farm business.
risk & disaster management
Photo: LWF Burundi
Medard heads up one of the co-operatives Burundi Farm Partners support. He shared:
Photo: LWF Nepal
Together, you grow a ‘supermarket’ of crops: corn
roots and tubers
fruit
beans
legumes
coffee
bananas
cereals
tea
plantains
vegetables
Project Plan introduces you to your Cooperative 6 monthly report – progress & challenges Completion Report – see your success! Personal service from Amanda – 1300 763 407
Did you find all the Gifts of Grace for Priya from the storybook Grandma’s Gift of Grace? There are 7. Rice-growing. Fuel-efficient Stove. Goat. Veggie Garden. WASH Kit. Home repair. School Kit. Provide a child like Priya with what she needs to break free of poverty.
Set up a child with all they need to go to school. A School Kit of pencils and paper. Supplies for their teacher. Even porridge for a healthy meal. Girls also receive a Dignity Kit so they don’t need to miss school each month.
What do you get when you bring together chickens, a goat and a hive of bees? A whole farmyard of Gifts of Grace animals that can support a family to develop their own farm business to provide for their children.
ORDER NOW: 1300 763 407 * alws.org.au/grace
• Chickens • Veggie Patch • WASH Kit
• School Set • Teaching Supplies • Dignity Kit
• Grow Rice • Business Build • Grain Bank
ALWS collects personal information about you in order to process your gift. A copy of the Privacy Policy is available at alws.org.au If you don’t wish to receive further news from ALWS, simply call 1300 763 407 or write to alws@alws.org.au Australian Lutheran World Service (ALWS) is The Overseas Aid & Development Agency of the Lutheran Church of Australia – ABN 70 679 042 169
Price
Qty
Total
Bee-Keeping
$163
$
Business Build
$23
$
Camp Kitchen Repair
$210
$
Chicken Farm
$66
$
Dignity Kit
$9
$
Farm a Forest
$56
$
Farm Grow Training
$100
$
Fuel-efficient Stove
$72
$
Best Phone
Goodness Goatness
$110
$
Grain Bank
$21
$
@
Home Repair
$145
$
Loo-theran Long Drop
$244
$
Refugee Teacher
$360
$
Refugee Welcome
$18
$
Rice Growing
$25
$
Sack Farm Training
$8
$
Savings Group
$22
$
School Kit
$8
$
School Porridge
$7
$
Teaching Supplies
$8
$
Unlock Abilities
$67
$
Veggie Patch
$45
$
WASH Kit
$43
$
Water for Life
$288
$
Youth Training
$169
$
One of everything!!!
$2,287
$
Burundi Farm Partnership $5,200
$
Priya Pack
$448
$
School Set
$32
$
Animal Farm
$339
$
Fold-up Money Box
$2
$
Postage Donation (optional)
$5.00
EXPRESS Post – after 4 December
$9.00
YOUR GIFTS TOTAL – tax-deductible $
Title
First name
Last name School / Church Address
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Cheque / money order payable to ALWS Please debit my
Expires
/
CVC/CCV
Cardholder Signature NB: Your credit card details are destroyed after your order is filled!
alws.org.au/grace • 1300 763 407 FREE Mail (no stamp needed) to: Australian Lutheran World Service Reply Paid 488 PLEASE PRINT CLEARLY ALBURY NSW 2640
Photo: ALWS
No, I don’t need Grace Sheets No, I don’t need Thank you Gift
✂
No, I don’t need Grace Cards