Fundraising Help and Suggestions Needed,

Oneloveonly

Hi Guys I dont know if any of you heard of the aid worker who was killed in Ghana recently from Galway but please read on as I really need some help and suggestions

I know this is a bit out of the blue but I hoping you can help me and guide me with something which means quite a lot to me.
Over the last 2 weeks I lost my best and closest college friend Natalie Higgins.
Natalie was only 24 and was from Galway. I had lived with her in Dublin for 2 years when we did a tv presenting course together here in Dublin.
Nat meant the world to me and we did everything together in college. She had her own personal problems as we all do in life but she faced every single day with a smile and always put other people before herself no matter what.
After college Nat moved to London for a few months where I myself lived also but she returned to do a childcare course where she also volunteered to help disabled children in the Galway area. While remaining to devote her time to this she still had a greater urge to help less fortunate people on a greater scale.
It was at this point she got in contact with an organisation called "Projects Abroad" and decided with much consultation with her family that she was going to go to Ghana in Africa to devote her time there where she could have further impact on the lives of the less fortunate.
Natalie was just a simple girl from a small rural community who had dreams and a heart of Gold.
Nat held many fundraisers in Galway to fund her long journey ahead and had huge support from her community in Abbey in Galway and her friends from far and wide.
She had during the course of the fundraisers actually raised more money than she had thought she would, actually €5,000 more and so she had an idea in mind for this money which I will tell you about in a few moments.
Nat went to Ghana on the 22nd of May this year and when she got there she found it extremely tough for the first few days. She had gone alone knowing nobody leaving her family home, her mum, her dad, her older brother Keith and her little brother who she idolised Craig who is 6 and who she raised like her own son.
When she was there she was drawn to tears by the poverty and the conditions all the kids lived in and how they sometimes went through a whole day without a single meal. The orphanages were doing whatever fundraising they could but this was simply to pay the rent on the building itself and the children were seeing little or no benefit whatsoever.
She was determined to do what she could to help, so as a result she came to the conclusion that she was going to use the extra money to put towards buying land so that a new orphanage could be built that was theirs and rent free. Natalie had spoken to her mum on the phone about this and her mum knew her daughter was determined to get this done.
Nats last conversation with her mum was on the 31st of May at 6pm she told her mum she was starting to settle in and had begun to get used to the food over there and had made 2 Canadian friends who were also working with her.

Unfortunately that very night a knock came to the door of her mums home in Abbey in Galway and two members of the guards entered to bring some harrowing news. Natalie had been killed in an accident in the water just 3 hours previous.
She had walked down to the beach and was at the water washing sand from her feet with her 2 Canadian friends when the 3 of them were struck by a huge wave and pulled out into the sea. The undercurrents were so strong all 3 were helpless.
A passer by on the beach managed to raise the alarm and many people ran to their aid. The 2 Canadian girls were saved and another American boy had managed to grab Nat but she was not a very strong swimmer and the undercurrent was too strong and he lost her grip. He himself had to be saved by 2 other people and Natalie was lost to the water.
Her body was later found ashore 2 hours later.
Her body only came home on Friday last the 6th.
Myself and some of Natalies college mates as well as her family are now determined to carry on her good work in her name and finish what she had planned to do and get this orphange in Ghana built.

I myself am hosting a fundraising event in Dublin in the next 2 months to raise money for this excellent cause. I am looking to get help with a variety of things from etertainment, venue, food, and I am looking to know does anyone know of any big names that would be willing to come along to the event to basically endourse the event and make it something the public would be willing to come to.

Any help and suggestions would be more than welcome.


Bren