Gill-Aid...raising funds for the Philippines disaster.

Lets face it, here in England we are incredibly lucky to not have to worry about mother natures destruction. Yes we get some cold, snowy, icy days. We even get some high gusts of wind from time to time. We all jump to complain about how it disrupts our travel plans etc but compared to some of the devastation across other parts of the world we really need to take a step back and thank our lucky stars.

This is why I've got involved in Gill-Aid. There are just a few of us trying to organise lots of charity events to raise money and awareness for the recent Philippines disaster.

The super typhoon that recently hit the Philippines named  'Typhoon Haiyan' has caused utter devastation. It hit on Friday the 8th November 2013 taking the lives of thousands of people, destroying homes and tearing villages apart. The 300 mile wide typhoon was the strongest storm to ever make landfall. The full extent of damage is still not yet clear. What is clear however is that thousands of innocent people, men, women and children who managed to survive are now homeless and without proper supplies of food and water.

This was when Gill-Aid formed. Our aim is to raise as much money from our community by putting on a series of events over the coming weeks. Our first event is to have a parol parade. This will be taking place on the 29th of November.

A parol is a Filipino concept. Its a star shaped Christmas lantern which symbolises the victory of light over darkness. We decided we would take this Filipino tradition and bring it to our high street. We are making as many parols as we possibly can out of paper, bamboo and other simple materials. We want to fill Gillingham high street with as many people as we can from young through to old, all carrying a parol lit with glow sticks, torches and led lights to show our respect and solidarity in reflection of what has happened in the Philippines.

Our next event is something that we are working hard to make as amazing as possible in a very short time frame. We have been overwhelmed by the amount of offers flooding in to support this event. It's going to be being held over two days, the 6th and 7th of December. We have bands, children's entertainers and crafts planned to spread over the two evenings and during Saturday daytime. Lots of entertainment over many venues. 

The next event is an auction which will be held at the Olive Bowl in Gillingham with a fully licensed bar. We have lots of great things coming in to auction off, again all money going to the Philippines. Once the auction has finished there will be a disco thanks to a local company donating their services.

I really hope Gillingham gets behind all of this and together, as a community we can raise lots of money to send abroad and rebuild other communities to what they once were.