STORY: Green Community Hubs – Daniel and Mitkie
Retired couple, Daniel and Mitkie, moved to the UK from Hong Kong two and a half years ago. To help them integrate, and to give back to the community, they’ve become keen volunteers around Fleetwood.
On Wednesdays, you’ll find them at Eden Gardens – a Green Community Hub at Westview Community Association – getting stuck-in to a range of gardening tasks.
Living in a heavily built-up environment in high-rise buildings, and with a very hot, wet climate, gardening wasn’t something that was readily available to them in Hong Kong. Here, they’re able to learn green skills, spend time outdoors, meet new people and – most importantly for them – help out.
Speaking of his involvement, Daniel says:
“I love this place. We can enjoy nature, the plants and the animals that come around. Being close to nature is totally different from what we had in Hong Kong because we lived in a high-rise concrete building.
“We didn’t have our own garden and even though there were parks, we didn’t have the chance to get involved in maintaining them or anything like that.
“From an early age I dreamed of living in the UK because I’m crazy about rock music. We’ve been here for two and a half years and didn’t speak English before we came. We wanted something new instead of hiding in the comfort zone of Hong Kong.
Our favourite thing is the flowers. The colour and the combination is really nice. At home, we don’t have many flowers except roses, so we enjoy coming down here and can learn how to plant the colourful flowers for ourselves. We’ve been able to learn a lot of things.”
Mitkie added: “We started volunteering over a year ago. In Hong Kong the weather is really hot and wet and only the millionaires have small gardens at home, but we’ve learnt a lot of things in the UK and we enjoy looking after the plants and flowers. We’ve learnt to maintain the garden, how to use the garden tools, and which plants are good for us.
“In Hong Kong I was really afraid of the insects but in the UK I can get on with them.”
The couple are particularly keen to give back to a community that has helped them settle into their new life here:
“Not many people have the time and energy to help. As long as we are still here and have spare time, we love to help. We want to be part of the community and we want to improve this site. We love to be here.
“The first time we came, there were a lot of overgrown plants and it looked awful, but eventually we saw some results. We are happy to see that because in this area there are a lot of kids and now they have a good place to go.
People need places to go and do outdoor activities like barbecues, to enjoy the sunshine, to communicate with each other and to make new friends. Human beings cannot live alone otherwise their mental health will suffer.
It’s a good place; people are very friendly. We’ve had a brand-new start here, so we want to volunteer, and we want to integrate into the community and help people in need.