Envoy's wife walks for Tondo school

MANILA, Philippines - Driven by a promise to provide learning to poor children in the slums of Tondo through the construction of schools, the wife of former British Ambassador to the Philippines Peter Beckingham began yesterday a four-day, 60-mile charity walk from the Philippine Embassy in London to Brighton in an effort to raise funds for the schools.

Jill Beckingham, who like her husband is a former schoolteacher and a Cambridge graduate, began her walk at 9 a.m. yesterday from Trafalgar Square, near the Philippine Embassy in London. She plans to walk about 15 miles a day for four days towards Brighton.

She aims to raise £1,000 for the worthy cause through sponsorships and donations of £10 or £20 from the public. Donations can be made through the site www.justgiving.com/Jillbeckingham.

When the Beckinghams returned to UK after her husband’s tour of duty ended this year, Mrs. Beckingham planned to chair the board in the UK of the Philippine Community Fund (PCF), the project on the dumpsite.

“However, I did promise that I would do one last fund raising event here for them. Jane Walker has become a very close friend and I am so committed to her work that I want to continue to help the new school. It is nearly finished and I am coming in January to cut the ribbon. Of course the costs have been huge, but we are getting there,” Mrs. Beckingham said in an email to The STAR.

With only a few months to think of a fundraising event, she said most of her ideas were too difficult to organize.

“So I came up with the idea of doing a walk. I am going to walk from London to Brighton over four days,” she said.

Beckingham’s interest and involvement in this project began when she and her husband arrived in Manila in 2005 and saw an opportunity to help the children of Tondo receive education as a tool to uplift themselves and their families.

She became a patron of PCF, a registered charity founded by Jane Walker, during a visit to Manila in 1996.

“When I saw the kids, it changed my life. It wasn’t something that I could forget. I just felt I had to play a part,” Beckingham said.

Walker is a single mother from Southampton who received an MBE during the Queen’s Birthday for her work in the Philippines.

The first school was established in 2002 in a warehouse. There is now a waiting list, with only those most in need being admitted. New schools are being constructed using shipping containers to accommodate more children.

Beckingham has been actively involved in the Tondo project – from the purchase of land to the building of the school. The charity walk is her last fund-raising project before she and her husband move to Mumbai in February 2010 to assume his new post.