Shop for Christmas gifts with these vendors and know your purchase benefits populations around the world. Vendors will be in the Undercroft after the 9:00 am and 11:15 am services, and after the afternoon Messiah concert.

Mixteca Weavers are part of a nonprofit organization in Oaxaca, Mexico supported by The Circle of Women. All profits go diretly to the weavers. The women have formed a financial co-operative are now managing their own monies and marketing in Mexico. The sale of one shawl will feed a family of five for a month.

Mil Milagros, Inc. is a Boston-based non-profit that was founded in 2007 by Trinity parishioner Margaret Blood to address the urgent nutrition, health and education needs of children in Guatemala where 50% of the children suffer from chronic malnutrition and only 30% finish sixth grade. Mil Milagros seeks to reverse these trends by partnering with schools, families and communities to ensure that the children receive a nourishing hot meal each school day, health and hygiene care, and school supplies. Now in its second year of operation, Mil Milagros serves nearly 600 children. Beautiful beaded jewelry hand made by Mayan women who are members of the Maya Skills cooperative will be sold to benefit the women, and Mil Milagros, along with change purses, pocketbooks, and scarves. Delicious organic fair trade coffee from Guatemala, called Cafecito Milagro, will also be sold.

The Heifer Project, founded in 1944, is a humanitarian assistance organization that works to end world hunger and protect the earth. Through livestock, training and passing on the gift, Heifer has helped 8.5 million families in more than 125 countries improve their quality of life and move toward greater self-reliance. This year Trinity’s 4th and 5th graders are making crafts and jar mixes. There will be a Great Bake Sale and some animals from the Heifer Regional Farm in Rutland will visit. Your gift donations of pigs and goats, bees and trees, etc. help alleviate hunger, poverty and environmental degradation around the world. And they’re the perfect gift for you to honor that person on your Christmas shopping list “who has everything”!

The Women Artists of Matenwa from the island of Lagonav, Haiti, are creating jewelry, scarves, handbags, and other brightly colored, traditional crafts. The sales of the artwork these women create are making a profound change in their lives, providing funding to feed their families and building respect for this productive group of women. The Matenwa Community Learning Center, under the leadership and commitment of Christine Low and Abner Sauveur, works to educate the children of Lagonav, to provide a breakfast program for the children, to train teachers, and to teach practical gardening skills. You can meet Christine Low on December 13 and learn more about her work. For more information, please visit www.matenwaclc.org.

Where: Downstairs in the Undercroft