Tembari kids need to be busy during free hours

Penny Sage-embo, co-founder and secretary of the Tembari Children Center (TCC) gives the Tembari children a pep talk on discipline on Saturday after the feeding program. – Picture by ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ



By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
A Friend of Tembari Children

PENNY Sage-embo, co-founder and secretary of the Tembari Children’s Care (TCC), has raised a valid concern:

Between feeding, for which we have been quite successful to date, and providing our beneficiary children preschool and elementary/primary education, for which we have also been successful, we have nothing more to speak of as far as enhancing their learning process is concerned.

She told me: After feeding and after the morning-only preschool classes were done, our kids have nothing more to do in their free time, especially the preschoolers, who prepare to stay at the center till afternoon while waiting for early dinner at 4pm before they go home to their respective guardians/foster parents for the night.

All they do is run around The Center’s playground and sometimes spilling over into the village road where PMVs are running like mad-dogs. That is after they tired out browsing old and worn-out picture books that were donated to The Center long ago.

While playing under the sun makes them sweat and give them the needed physical exercise, all this would not be enough to make them rounded individuals, Penny said.

“So, what can we do about this?” I asked her out of my curiosity.

She said: I would like you to find a donor who could provide us a small generator and a video player and a modestly-sized TV screen.

With all this—power and audio-visual facilities – the children could watch basic children’s education video programs which are now a common teaching aids in most children’s learning center.

“Such educational aids would enhance their awareness of the surroundings and at the same time help in instilling discipline among them,” Penny said.

This would keep the children busy indoor watching this video shows, something they would be experiencing for the first time in their lives.

Secondly, Penny has found individuals with teaching skills to help in these extra-curricular activities to carry out daily afternoon activities designed to acquaint preschoolers with new knowledge that only video programs could effectively provide.

Exposures to new things dished out by children’s video programming would greatly compliment the preschool instructions they received every from Monday to Friday.

Why the generator, you may ask.

Well, the Tembari Center is not yet connected to the village’s power grid. The last power line post along the road leading to the day care facility stopped some 400 meters away.

The PNG Power Ltd since last year has been looking for funds to buy the materials needed to extend the power line grid up to where Tembari Center is located at ATS Oro Settlement.

And we cannot wait any longer for PNG Power to make good its promise to provide us electricity.

That’s why we need to acquire a medium size gen-set that could run a computer set, light a bulb or two and operate a video player and a TV monitor. And of course, children’s programming video.

The PC would help Penny prepare the long-over due profiling of our beneficiary children. Actually, they have been stored in a laptop but the battery power of the one Penny uses cannot last long, thus preventing her to work on the profiles into the night.

These items are too costly for us to acquire since the funds available to us have been set aside to support our daily operations at The Center.

For this, I would like to appeal to my readers: If you are able enough to donate to Tembari children a medium-sized gen-set and a set of video player and TV monitor, please let me know.

You have a big opportunity to be a part in enhancing the learning process of the Tembari Children. And this opportunity is now here.

Call me on 3246-712 (my landline at The National newspaper) and on 722-31984.

It’s the best that we can do for now to help shape the future of the Tembari Children.

Email the blogger: alfredophernandez@thenational.com.pg
jarahdz500@online.net.pg
freddiephernandez@yahoo.com