Charitable gifts for Christmas

In Discovery Menorca we like to suggest original ideas for Christmas presents. We have already written about ecological gifts, something useful that wouldn’t have a direct impact on our planet and we even gave some examples of recycled gifts that we could make at home.

This Christmas we are proposing something similar.  Giving environmentally sustainable presents by recycling unused products from social rehabilitation programmes.

We are talking about the products offered by Mestral, a social and charitable initiative promoted by Caritas Diocesan of Menorca whose main objective is to give work to socially excluded people by recycling clothes and larger items.

Mestral has six establishments open to the public. Two in Mahon, two in Ciutadella, one in Mercadal and one in Ferreries.  In these stores there are items for sale with the Fair Trade label, meaning that fair wages have been paid for their production, promotion of equality between men and women, respect for human rights and no child exploitation.  There is food, cosmetics, handicrafts, ceramics, bags, jewellery, wooden toys and ecological clothes, among other things. The most specialized store is in the Bastión de Mahón street, the other establishments have a smaller sample of the wide range of products.  In Mestral we can also find second-hand objects such as CD books, DVDs, vinyl, used clothing and a wide variety of objects to decorate the home.