Gardener cultivating cash for the tin-sheet kids
FLOWER POWER: Tim hopes he can help Indian schoolchildren by raising money.
AN adventurous gardener is helping raise money for poverty stricken schoolkids in India by collecting donations at the Southport Flower Show this summer.
Tim Atkinson, owner of Sound Garden Designs & Rhododendrons in Newton-le-Willows, has visited St Anthony’s School in Mungpoo, West Bengal, and was shocked by what he saw.
Tim told the Star: “I was lost for words when I saw the state of the school. It wasn’t like any school I’ve ever seen before.
“As we walked up I saw a building which I thought was the school but turned out to be a shop. The school was actually the below the shop and its structure was made out of tin sheets.”
St Anthony’s School is fee-paying, which means the parents of the pupils pay what little money they have for the upkeep of the building.
The average earnings of the adults in the small village is 80 rupees, which equates to roughly £1 per day.
As the state of West Bengal does not provide money for the school, the rent, books and stationary, and teachers’ wages are all paid through the small donations from the pupils’ guardians.
Tim, 49, first visited the school in 2011 and returned the following year to help as much as he could.
Along with his business partner Dawa Tsering of Hidden Paradise Adventure Tours in Sikkim,India, Tim & Dawa have spent the last six months raising money, which has managed to fund the building of new furniture, paid the rent for one year and replenished the pupils’ books.
Tim added: “Our aim in the next five years is to raise enough money to buy land, build the children a new school and generally give the people of the village a better life.
“We are entering the Southport Flower Show this year and basing our design on the school and the nearby flora.
“During the show we will be collecting donations and hopefully that will help out the ongoing efforts.”
Father-of-four Tim will be recruiting the help of his children as they prepare the display for the show which takes place in August.
