If you are willing to put together and send a bag of gifts to your sponsored family, or to a family you don’t know but we could identify, this would give them a memorable day that they will enjoy reminiscing about for years to come. Here’s some advice for what to send and how to send it. Thank you.

Suggested gifts:

• umbrella – an essential possession in the rainy season (June to September) that can be used as a parasol during the dry season
• plastic containers – useful for food storage
• clothes
• soap, talc, towels
• toothbrushes and toothpaste
• nail-clippers
• apron and tea-towels
• picture posters and world map
• wind-up torch
• sweets and nuts

For a family:

• school bag, toys cars, doll (dolls with long hair are particularly popular as girls love to plait the hair in the traditional Ethiopian styles), football, simple card games (Snap, Happy Families), picture books and simple story books in English, crayons, balloons, plastic animals, deodorant sticks

For a young adult in full-time training or education:

• English dictionary and easy-to-read books, notebook, pen
• for a young man: football magazines (the English Premier League is popular in Ethiopia), cap, pack of cards, deodorant stick
• for a young woman: women’s magazine, hair accessories, headscarf, jewellery, sanitary pads, deodorant stick

For an elderly person:

• woollen scarf or shawl, hat, bed-socks, blanket (it can be chilly at night in the Ethiopian Highlands

Protect delicate gifts with bubble-wrap and put them inside plastic containers. Place the gifts in a lightweight, plastic, zip-up shopping or storage bag (it will act as wrapping during transit as well as being useful to the recipient) and secure the end of the zip by tying or sewing it tightly with string or wool. Label the bag using adhesive labels and labels tied to the handles. (In the past donors have sent clothes and toys using zip-up bags and they have always arrived intact.) Without wrapping it in anything else, post the bag to Kate at the address below.

IMPORTANT! On the labels please indicate who this is for: your sponsored child’s name, or the category (FAMILY or YOUNG MAN orYOUNG WOMAN or ELDERLY PERSON). This is essential as Kate will not open the bag, but simply pass it on to the beneficiary.

• Please do not send very expensive gifts.
• Please do not put your name and address inside the bag, but do include sender’s details on the outside of the bag (or on the label attached to one handle of the bag) so that safe receipt of the bag can be acknowledged – these details will be removed from the bag before it is given to the beneficiary.

Please post your gifts direct to:

The Kindu Trust – Ethiopia

PO Box 1500

Gondar

Ethiopia

Thank you for giving some of the poorest people on Earth a day to remember.