Unwrapping novelty reindeer socks, Granny bath salts and hideous hand-knitted jumpers are all an inevitable part of Christmas morning.

But this year, after an eye opening visit to Nicaragua, I’ll be choosing gifts that could help change someone’s life rather than end up in the bin by Boxing Day.

Take Present Aid’s new Chocolate Starter Kit, for example, specially created to help small-scale Nicaraguan coffee farmers successfully adapt to the potentially devastating impact of climate change.

Soaring temperatures and erratic rains linked to global warming and deforestation have made it increasingly difficult to harvest high quality coffee here, but the kit’s hardy cocoa seedlings and expert training means that Nicaraguan farmers can now start growing heat-loving, organic cocoa instead.

I met Miguel Angel Zelaya, 48, one such farmer who lives with his wife Aurora, 46, their five children, and two grandchildren, in the picturesque hill-top village of Santa Rosa, El Cua, in the country’s north-central highlands.

“Coffee has thrived here since my Grandparents time, but the effect of recent changeable weather patterns means that it’s now far too hot to grow coffee properly, and our yields have already dropped to about a sixth of what they were just a few years ago,” Miguel told me.

“Over the past decade the environment in Nicaragua has changed beyond all recognition, and it’s nearly impossible to predict what the weather will be like on any given day,” he continues, pausing only to offer more chilli-soaked tortillas and glance at the shimmering heat-haze fringing the surrounding peaks.

“Landslides, hurricanes and floods happen more frequently in some areas of the country but in other parts it’s uncomfortably hot and humid, rainy then dry, cloudy then cold, who knows anymore?” he shrugs.

“Because of our worsening coffee harvests, my wife and I sat down one day to do our sums, and we soon realised that if this hot weather continues, there will be no coffee farms left by the time my children grow up.

“Obviously we were very frightened by this discovery, but then we got our cocoa seeds and training with Christian Aid’s partner Soppexcca, and I’m pleased to say that early yields are very promising and we’re optimistic about the future,” Miguel concludes, grinning widely through silver-plated teeth.

As the matriarch of the Zelaya family, Miguel’s wife Aurora couldn’t agree more.

“The extra income we’re already earning is a huge blessing,” she says.

“Before the cocoa came along we didn’t know if we could afford to send our youngest children to secondary school, but now that’s a real possibility and it makes me happy to know that they have a far better chance at a good life than we once thought.”

“I like cocoa for that reason and, although I’ve never tasted real chocolate myself, I’m told that you Westerners love it so it’s win-win eh?” she laughs loudly.

Win-win indeed.

Initial cocoa harvests have been so promising in recent years that Soppexcca, a collective of 18 Fairtrade-certified coffee-farming cooperatives, now hopes to start commercialising locally-grown organic cocoa as soon as next year.

“Climate change is having a huge effect on everyone here,” says Fatima Ismael, pioneering director of Soppexcca.

“This year’s rains are late yet again, for example, sparking all too familiar fears in the towns and villages about crop failure and the resulting decline in food and vital income for rural families.

“However, the good news is that cocoa plants flourish in this hotter weather, they can be grown at the same time as the coffee’s traditional ‘dead’ period, and the latest cocoa harvests offer a real, tangible glimmer of hope for people here.

“Seriously, if you’re a bit stuck for something to buy your family or friends this Christmas, just remember that a little really does go a long, long way here,” she smiles.

Vulnerable to climate change
Of course, its not only Nicaraguan coffee farmers and flood victims who are adversely affected by climate change.

Although developing countries are least responsible for climate changing carbon emissions, these already-struggling nations are ironically the most vulnerable to the knock-on effects, and millions of people now face multiple crop failure, flooding, hurricanes, drought, displacement, disease and starvation.

Their future now depends on a fair international agreement at the UN’s momentous climate summit in Copenhagen this December. To find what you can do to help just click on www.christianaid.org.uk/copenhagen

Present Aid
From life-saving mosquito nets and clean water taps, to income-generating beehives and flood survival kits, Present Aid’s Christmas catalogue features virtual gifts designed to directly benefit some of the world’s poorest people, like Miguel and his wife.

This year there are some really innovative ideas, like a nutritious meal for 80 children in Bangladesh for £10; a computer training course for HIV orphans in the Democratic Republic of Congo for £14; three mosquito nets for families in Nigeria for £15; a flood survival kit in Nicaragua for £20; and a clean water tap, a toilet and a sink for a household in India for £41.

The deadline for Christmas gift purchases is 15 December. To order Present Aid’s new catalogue please call 0845 3300 500 or visit www.presentaid.org

Images by Karen Robinson/Christian Aid