Spreading the message of hope around the world

A bake sale will take place tomorrow Saturday (July 19) to raise funds for Leila Beattie’s granddaughter who is going to Kolkata with The Hope Foundation.

From 1999 to March 2024 The Hope Foundation has provided educational support to nearly 97,000 children, while over 2.9 million people across Kolkata, Howrah and other areas in West Bengal have received access to healthcare services through their teams.

It is several small initiatives such as that of Amelie Murphy’s bake sale and coffee morning that creates these services for those in need. The Cork native spoke to the Celt while spending a few weeks of her summer holidays in Cavan with her granny. A great community woman, Leila’s kitchen is full of cooking apples when the Celt calls out to meet Amelie; a dance in Ballinagh requires a few apple tarts. There are also cut outs of navy and yellow triangles around the counter, which will be used to create bunting for the fundraiser in Ballintemple Parish Hall this weekend.

Sixteen-year-old Amelie must raise €2,000 for her trip next February, however the funds must be raised by the end of the summer. With granny being a fabulous baker, and having abundant connections in the community, she decided Ballintemple would be a perfect place to hold her coffee morning. There will be plenty of home-baked goods on the day - tarts, muffins, cookies, jams, bread, cakes, scones, biscuits and much more.

Eleven people from Amelie’s school, Middleton College, will go along with her to Kolkata. The funds raised through their project will go towards Hope residential childcare centres, which take in homeless children and provides them with education.

“When we’ve raised our money for the charity, we’re going over to see what our money has done,” she said, describing how they will be meeting the children in the centres they helped to fund.

Going into Transition Year, Amelie said the trip is a “good thing” to do.

“It’s a really big thing, our school really pushes it and everybody’s always talking about it.

“I am looking forward to it. I think it will be hard work, I still have a lot of money to raise but I think it’ll be great.”

“It will be really rewarding,” she predicted.

She said she “would like to” work with Hope in the future.

“If you do this in Transition Year, you can later go over and work for them in India. It’s like a stepping stone, we’ll see how it goes.”

In a class of 200 people, the opportunity to volunteer in India is much sought after and there is a rigorous process of determining who is serious about going. To get accepted, Amelie had to write an essay on her reasons for going and previous charity work in which she has been involved. This was followed by an interview. Throughout the different stages, her grandmother was a huge inspiration.

“I actually talked about my granny a lot, I said she’s very involved in her community.”

Meanwhile Amelie too has grown to love this community and spending time with her granny and cousin Fia.

“It’s really nice up here.

“I’m always up here,” she added.

Looking forward to this weekend’s fundraiser, Amelie said she’s “hoping it will be good”, especially considering her grandmother “knows everyone” in the area, a comment which brings a laugh from Leila.

“A lot of granny’s friends said ‘I’ll bake you a loaf’. It’s really kind.”

“Even if people just come and we have a bit of a chat,” she encouraged.

Just that day, the trio went around the town putting up posters to raise awareness for the event.

“Some of the people just handed me some money,” said a shocked Amelie.

“It’s really nice, people are generous.

“Everybody is positive.”

Speaking on her granddaughter’s ambitions, Leila thinks what she is doing is “marvellous” and highly praised the efforts of both girls in preparing for the fundraiser.