How you can help make the world a better place

Are there some globe-trotters on your holiday gift list? It's likely they can do without another travel pillow or money belt; instead, this is a good time of the year to shop for a cause and give back to the countries we visit.

Here are a few ideas:

• Help a farmer in Azerbaijan raise money to buy pesticides for his pomegranate farm or an entrepreneur from Togo build a business selling traditional skirts. Empower a friend or relative to become a banker to the poor with a gift certificate from Kiva.org, a San Francisco nonprofit that links lenders with borrowers in third-world countries.

Electronic certificates for $25 or more can be used to make microloans directly to people whose bios and business plans appear on the Kiva Web site. Lenders receive progress reports, but collect no interest. Borrowers, vetted by microfinancing organizations in their home countries, usually pay the money back over a 12- to 24-month period. Kiva so far has arranged $14 million in loans to more than 139,000 people. See www.kiva.org for details.

• Give a gift subscription to a magazine that promotes responsible travel. The bimonthly Transitions Abroad is an excellent publication for anyone interested in teaching English as a second language, living or studying abroad or volunteering overseas. A one-year subscription is $19.95. See www.transitionsabroad.com, or call 866-760-5340.

International Travel News targets active and armchair travelers with articles on budget and luxury travel, group tours and independent adventures. It's thick with tips and stories submitted by travelers who are not professional writers. A one-year subscription is $24. See www.intltravelnews.com, or call 916-457-3643.

• Make a contribution to an organization in countries where a friend or relative likes to travel or is planning a trip. Make the donation in her name, and ask for a gift card.

Friendship with Cambodia (www.friendshipwithcambodia.org), a Eugene, Ore., nonprofit, sends gift cards for contributions of $20 or more. $160 will buy a cow or a house for a family in a rural village. For $360, you can sponsor the education of a student as a gift. The organization will send a card, student's photo and a biography.

• Shop for handmade crafts, jewelry, textiles and other gifts at stores and online retailers dedicated to supporting fair wages and decent working conditions for third-world artisans.

Global Exchange, a San Francisco-based international human-rights organization, operates a Fair Trade store at http://store.gxonlinestore.org with items such as baskets from Darfur or birdhouses made of gourds from Peru.

Ten Thousand Villages, at 6417 Roosevelt Way N.E., Seattle (or online at www.tenthousandvillages.com), sells the work of artisans from more than 30 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America with help from the Menonite Church, whose volunteers staff the store.

Giraffe, at 174th Street and Vashon Highway on Vashon Island, partners with Ten Thousand Villages, and sells items the owner finds on her own made by small producers from Indonesia to Zimbabwe. See www.giraffevashon.com.

• Buy a book or a travel accessory from a locally owned independent business dedicated to helping travelers. Wide World Books & Maps (wideworldtravels.com) in Wallingford, The Savvy Traveler in Edmonds (www.savvytraveleredmonds.com), REI (www.rei.com) and Rick Steves' Europe Through the Backdoor (www.ricksteves.com) host dozens of free travel-related slide shows, talks and seminars every year. They're businesses, but they're also community resources, and they deserve our support.

• Promise yourself or your child, spouse or partner a "volunteer vacation." Many organizations offer the chance to travel with a purpose.

Locally, Sammamish resident Son Michael Pham, 50, who fled South Vietnam in 1975 at age 18 with his parents and four siblings, sponsors HumaniTours to Vietnam.

The two-week trips combine sightseeing with humanitarian missions to schools, hospitals and orphanages through Kids Without Borders, an organization he founded six years ago. See www.kidswithnoborders.org or call 425- 836-5354.

Vermont-based Volunteers for Peace links members with more than 3,500 service projects in 100 countries worldwide. Projects usually last two to three weeks.

Volunteers this year helped build a garden at a Buddhist meditation center in Berlin; taught English in Oaxaca, Mexico; and worked with a nonprofit circus troop in Dublin.

Fees include $30 to join VFP and $250 paid to the work camps to cover basic living expenses. See www.vfp.org or call 802-259-2759.

Carol Pucci's Travel Wise column runs the last Sunday of the month in Travel. Comments are welcome. Contact her at 206-464-3701 or cpucci@seattletimes.com.