Gifts of Hope Certificates
Gifts of Hope certificates are a great alternative to spending money on things you or your loved one don't need. When Christmas, Birthdays or Weddings come around why not send RSVP Gifts of Hope certificates. We'll provide a gift certificate for you to send to your loved one, and the value of the certificate you choose will be used to help someone in extreme poverty have a better day.
Gifts of Hope are used to buy food for the hungry, a mattress and blankets for those sleeping on the floor, a goat, soap or other basic needs. They can buy roofing for leaking houses. They can help someone be educated. They can feed a Street Child. In fact urgent needs can be so varied that Gifts of Hope can be used to meet any urgent need in Africa.
We believe in long term sustainable development in the Third World. But some people can't wait for the long term benefits to come. They are starving now. They are sick now. They are in desperate need now. And that's where Gifts of Hope come in. They meet urgent needs.
Gifts of Hope certificates are available in £5, £10, £20, £50 denominations but other gifts can be made up using these amounts. We send you certificates for the amount you give. You then send the certificates to your friend or loved one to let them know you have sent a gift on their behalf.
Where your donations go...
Gifts of Hope are delivered personally to the poor by Don Egan and RSVP staff.
"I'm so hungry"
We visited this old lady and found her sitting on her doorstep looking very sad. We had driven across fields to find her remote home. It must have been strange for her to see our vehicle coming towards her house. Even stranger when our white faces appeared. The lady was starving. It's very unusual to speak before you greet someone here, but straight away she said, "I'm so hungry." She had no idea her prayer was already answered. We told her that Jesus had sent us to deliver some special gifts.
We opened the back of the van and cut open a large sack of rice and another one of maze flour. We began filling a large bag full of food for her. We also gave her sugar, salt, soap, and cooking oil. That would have been more than she was expecting that day. But when we pulled two mattresses and a couple of blankets out of the van, she was overwhelmed. This old lady lives with her daughter and grand daughter. She was very happy when we left. Hope had come in a Gift.
An angel raped by a neighbour
Angelica, - 'her name means angel' the interpreter tells me. Angelica lives in the slums of Kigali. Her house is reached by a series of steep dirt slopes weaving through the maze of decaying cement houses and corrugated iron sheet roofs. Open drains run by the path.
At first, I thought Angelica was the daughter of the house. But it quickly became apparent that she has had to grow up very quickly. She told me how a man from a nearby house came and raped her. This left her pregnant with her first child.
After this another man moved in with her and she had two more children. He then left the country and she has been left alone with three small children and a painful past. Life is very hard. She had little hope. The house is really just one room as she rents out the other room to make some money. She sleeps on the floor.
She was very glad to receive the Gifts of Hope. At least it showed that someone cared about her. Perhaps there is hope...
The Miracle Woman
Catherine is a miracle woman. It's a miracle she is alive. When she was a small baby she was nearly killed. In 1959, Rwanda encountered it's first genocide. Solders came through her village and began burning down all the houses belonging to the Tutsi. Catherine's parents grabbed the children and fled. They had six children and, in the panic, they suddenly realised that baby Catherine had been left behind. Her Dad ran into the house and grabbed his little baby from the flames. Catherine was very badly burned. Her right hand is a gnarled stump that was melted by the flames.
She returned from Tanzania after the genocide ended in 1994. She still lives in desperate poverty. Another miracle is that she laughs so much as we talk. Her son is sponsored through RSVP so he can get a proper education. She lives with her husband who is older and suffering a lot of health problems. They are both malnourished and sleep on a dirt floor. Catherine grabbed us and hugged us so much as we delivered her Gifts of Hope. It didn't solve all their desperate problems, but I could see in their eyes, hope had come that day.
John does not have AIDS
When we visited Marie, she wasn't expecting us. She was rubbing some ointment on her little boy Jean-Claude. He has a rash on his skin. It's a side effect of taking his AIDS medication without food. If he had taken it with food, he wouldn't have a rash. But they don't have any food. So he takes his medication and has a rash. He is just a little boy who has contracted AIDS.
His Dad recently died of AIDS. Marie has AIDS too. She is very ill. She is still grieving her husband and very worried about her older son, John, who will soon be all alone in the world.
John is the only member of the family who doesn't have AIDS. Both of the boys are sponsored so they can go to school. Jean-Claude doesn't always go because of his illness. Soon John will be left alone in the world because he doesn't have AIDS. This month they will have food to eat. Now they can take the medication with food like they're supposed to. It's a harrowing story but today, at least, food has come to the house, thanks to RSVP supporters.
