Continuing our discussion on collecting donations while you wait, from here, there are many, many ways to help with in-kind donations.

In addition to, or instead of gathering donations for orphanages (your child's or others), you may end up choosing one (or more) NGO's (Non Governmental Organizations) to work with. Mary, on the Ethiopia Adopt blog, has some good ideas on organizations to give through, (including AHOPE, the home for HIV+ children being run by AAI) and even on having an “orphanage shower”. I had a sweet friend who decided she wanted to have an “assemble-birth-kits-for Africa” shower when she was expecting her fifth child earlier this year. She got a tremendous response and there are dozens of mamas in Zambia who now have some new, clean supplies to birth with. Involve your family and friends in donation-gathering (and/or making). Chances are really good that they WANT to do something, but are unsure of what to do or how to start.

You can also make donations – cloth diapers, leper bandages, skirts or T-shirt dresses (as I mentioned in the previous blog), shorts, wooden toys and more. I have two sons that have done Eagle Scout projects for Africa – one gathered fabric, then cut out and sewed shorts while the other collected and put together school kits that he donated in person.

You can also decide to gather donations for NGO's that work in the country you are adopting from – or who work in Africa in general. You could gather donations for “Mothers Without Borders”, “Africa Is Life-Changing”, LDS Humanitarian Services, (which donates hygiene kits, school kits, baby blankets, newborn kits and more all over the world), the “Children of Ethiopia Educational Fund” (which focuses on educating girls in Ethiopia) or many other small (or large) groups working in Africa.

You could focus on donating educational materials, or things specifically for babies, or hygiene kits, or even white shirts and ties to donate to a church group in Africa. If you want to put together birth kits (or really, any other type of kits), I have ways of getting them distributed – and so do many other groups. So dive right in - there are lots of ways to gather donations and lots of groups to give them to.