Name: Andrea Wickham

Placement: Sabuj Sangha, Kolkata

Amount Raised:  €4000

• Coffee Morning
• Letters to Local Businesses
• Primary School 
• Raffle
• Bag-packing

The first event I organised was a coffee morning at home in Navan for friends and neighbours. I put up posters in local newsagents, roped in some volunteers to post leaflets around the neighbourhood and had notices about the event posted in the Parish newsletter and local paper. I asked a few local bakeries and supermarkets to donate any baked goods or other items for use as spot prizes on the day. (leaving me eating leftover cakes for breakfast lunch and dinner for days afterwards!) People were invited to make a donation of their choosing and the morning raised just under €1300.

I wrote to a number of businesses that my parents have personal contacts with through their own company with details of my placement and the kind of work I would be doing in Kolkata. Those that responded were extremely generous and I raised over €800 from this endeavor. I replied to each donation with a personal thank you card and upon my return I also sent each sponsor a short video depicting some of my experiences over the summer.

I visited my former Primary School to ask if they could help in my fundraising in any way. The principal was most enthusiastic and through a school-wide Easter egg raffle the school raised €600. I have since visited the schools with photos and tales of my experience and gave a brief talk to the students of Sixth Class about life in India.

The proprietor of Lir Chocolates happened to read the article in the Meath Chronicle about my fundraising and donated a huge Easter hamper which I raffled off in a local grocers in Dunshuaghlin. Tickets were €1 and despite only being on display for a few days the raffle earned €200.

The Supervalu outlet in Johnstown in Navan offered me one of their Saturday bag packing slots to raise money for the programme. I coerced a number of my friends in college to make the trek down to Navan for the day to give me a hand, armed with Suas buckets, t-shirts and posters. It was well worth it as we raised €900 in total! It was also a great day as I got the opportunity to chat to customers about what I was doing and where their money was going; people are generally more generous if they can put a face to their donation.

All in all, with all of those events, as well as the spontaneous generosity of friends, family and local people I raised just over €4000. None of it would have been possible without the support of friends and family who bag packed, put up posters and hassled their friends to come to my coffee morning and dig deep. My mother in particular was amazing, becoming my financial advisor, as well as marketing co-ordinator and part-time events manager! To thank all those local people whom I don't know but who gave so generously to my cause I have written a follow-up article for local paper recounting my experiences in India, which would not have been possible without their support.