Having Ukrainian heritage I am unfortunately quite au fait with the heartache that war brings. My parents fled Ukraine, as did so many others, after the pain and horror of WW2 and thankfully were able to settle and make a new life here in Australia. But we still have family in Ukraine today who are enduring that pain and horror all over again because of Russia's invasion and who are fighting for their freedom and very existence.
Most of us feel pretty helpless to actually affect a significant change to what is happening in the world today thinking "what can I do?". But we can as individuals still make a difference albeit on a more modest level. Simply by considering how and where we choose to buy our gifts this can make a difference to an individual's life, a family and then flow on to a whole community.
At Beautifully Gifted I have tried to help make a difference by choosing to source gifts that are not mass produced but come from smaller artisan producers both here in Australia and from overseas. This not only supports a small business and its dependants but by not buying cheap, fast fashion disposable items we are trying to chip away at the "if it doesn't last it doesn't matter I'll just buy another one" mentality. This obviously flows on to having an environmental impact given all that cheap, unusable stuff ends up in landfill. As we expand our range at Beautifully Gifted these values will still sit at the core of how I source product.
In addition, to help make a difference, Beautifully Gifted is committed to donating 10% from sales of all Soul Collection candles (including Christmas range) to the Healing Foundation and 10% from all other sales to the Ukraine Crisis Appeal.
For more information on these two organizations please visit: