THE FAMILY of Galway aid volunteer Natalie Higgins, who died in Ghana last weekend, plans to contribute money she raised to finance a new orphanage in the west African state.
Ms Higgins’s aunt confirmed yesterday that funds collected by her niece before she travelled to Ghana will help purchase a site for the orphanage in the village of Ampatia outside Kumasi city.
Ms Higgins (24), from Abbeyknockmoy, Co Galway, had arrived in Ghana to work in an orphanage late last month.
She had travelled to the Atlantic coastline last weekend for a monthly gathering of her charity, Projects Abroad. She was walking along the beach with two colleagues when she was swept out to sea by a rogue wave.
“Our hearts are broken but her family have every intention of carrying out her dream and doing more in the years ahead,” her aunt, Margaret McHugh, told Galway Bay FM yesterday.