Giving up a gift to end poverty

Students from Calgary are challenging others to give up a Christmas gift to help stop poverty. People taking up the challenge can register at Uend.org and select a sustainable development project. In fact, this is a pretty good gift idea itself.

From The Edmonton Journal, writer Sarah McGinnis introduces us to the four students starting the challenge.

Betty Wang, Derrick Yick, Sherri Cui and Yiti Wang launched the campaign after encountering the UEnd Foundation at a recent youth summit.

UEnd is a Calgary-based charity that helps people support poverty-ending programs around the world.

The quartet of friends, who attend Western Canada High School, decided to each ask a loved one to donate to the foundation in lieu of giving them a present this year.

"Over the Christmas season, while we're sitting here enjoying ourselves, there are other people who really need the help," said Wang, 16.

"It feels good to be able to start something and help them out."

Hoping to encourage others to follow their lead, the students headed to social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to help spread the word.