Keep it in Perspective

This year, my Mother-In-Law suggested that the grown-ups in the family give each other donations to charity rather than gifts.
I happen to know the founder of ZimKids, a charity that feeds 160 Zimbabwean children and their families, so I went to see Dennis right before he flew back to "Zim" so that I could pick out a couple of the handmade dolls he sells on behalf of the kids.
Here's how it works: the kids make dolls out of donated fabric scraps. Each doll (minimum donation $25) comes with a 1 page bio of the child who made it. Dennis takes down the purchaser's name & address, and the child sends a thank you note.
Being poor myself, I planned on buying just one $25 doll for my M-I-L.
Everything was packed up, but Dennis opened up one of the 4 remaining boxes of dolls. He'd sold maybe a hundred boxes full by going around to church organizations all summer, tirelessly promoting the project.
I chose a sweet little doll in blue flowered and lace fabric, made by a 12 year old girl named Loveness Moyo. The bio says that Loveness lives with her gogo (grandmother) because her parents are both deceased. Her best moment was the birthday party her mother gave for her in 2004. Her worst moment was her mother's death in 2005.
I'm sure that my M-I-L will enjoy this gift, because she always wants to help the less fortunate.
What I didn't plan on doing, while I was looking through the box of dolls, was falling in love with a doll myself.
There was the cutest little devil doll. He was made with blue denim and had yellow features, and horns.
This one was made my Ngonidzashe Gwatirera. His first name means "messenger of god." His parents died of AIDS, so he too lives with his grandmother.
Something about this doll just grabbed me, and while Dennis was on the phone, I kept reading over Ngo's bio. I happened to have some bucks in my checking account, and some cash on me -- never enough to cover the bills, but at least there was cash flow. And buying a handmade doll was not on my list of expenses.
But I was thinking about the kind of poverty the Zimkids experience. People are literally starving to death in that country. There is rampant cholera. Rampant disease, such as AIDS.
The children who happened to fall into Dennis' orbit are the lucky ones, as are their families.
100% of the proceeds from doll sales go to the kids, but it's delivered in the form of monthly food baskets that feed the child's whole family. It also goes to buy medical supplies, clothes - whatever the child needs. In one sad instance, the proceeds from the sales of a 10 yr old boy's dolls paid for his coffin and funeral after he died from AIDS.
The talented kids make more money. Both Ngo and Loveness had sold about 20 dolls apiece. As I write this, I'm worried about the untalented kids who make clumsy dolls. I'll have to ask Dennis about that. Since there's a minimum donation, maybe he puts the extra donations people give into a common fund.
Dennis has an MBA, (Capitalist!) and he's very good at keeping track of who has made how much and who needs to send a thank you note to whom. I was very impressed with his organizational skills. He came up with this whole idea, and runs the program on his own at the moment.

So I stood there, pondering the devil doll, picking it up, putting it back, reading the bio, putting it down, and finally I thought, even though I have troubles, Ngo's troubles are worse, and maybe the doll will bring me luck.
So I picked up the $25 I had put down on the counter, and replaced it with $50.
As I write, I have the devil doll propped up like a good luck talisman on my desk. It's a reminder that however bad we have it, it still ain't all that bad.

To see more about the charity, go to www.zimkids.com