Tembari children having soup while waiting for the main course of rice and
chicken stew during one of their Saturday feeding activities. – Photo by AP
HERNANDEZ
By
ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
A
Friend of Tembari Children
THE
Homeguard Construction based in Port
Moresby has donated K1,000 towards the feeding program
for Tembari children.
The
cheque for the amount was delivered to me last Thursday.
It
would go a long way towards the daily feeding activities at the Tembari center located
at Oro settlement outside of Port
Moresby.
Having
checked the prices of foodstuff such as noodles and biscuits in one of the
supermarkets around, I learned that the fund would buy at least 17 cartons of
cheap biscuits and at least 15 cartons of instant noodle soup.
You
see, these items would support the daily noon
snacks of our beneficiary preschoolers, who, this school year would number
close to 40 aside from some 90 preschool children from the Oro community.
What
I am trying to say is that we are expecting at least 40 beneficiary
preschoolers from the community who are orphans, neglected and abandoned.
After
their classes which begin at 8am
are done by noon, the kids
are served snack foods such as noodles or biscuits along cordial drinks and
fresh milk if it’s available.
The
rest of the preschoolers who would be numbering 90 this school year would go
home for lunch. They are children from families with means to support them
through school.
But
the Tembari preschoolers don’t usually go home to their bubus, guardians and
relatives.
They
stay put at the center through afternoon doing some educational activities
including watching DVD kiddie programs until the main feeding activity for the
day takes place later in the afternoon. This is the late dinner comprising rice
and protein, which could be tinned meat or tinned fish cooked with veggies.
About
this time, the Tembari beneficiary children attending schools at two major
elementary schools in Port Moresby
– one is the Wardstrip
Elementary School --
would be homing in for the early dinner, which they share with the
preschoolers.
This
year, we expect to have about 116 elementary and primary school children plus
40 preschoolers. The rest of the kids would be those of non-school age – from 4 to 2 years old. All in all, we are
expecting to serve close to 200 children this year.
After
the feeding, they go home for the night to come back the next day for school.
Since
Tembari preschool is the only one operating at Oro settlement, many parents
have decided to send their young learners to our school.
As
a CBO, or community-based organization registered with Investment Promotion
Authority (IPA), the Tembari Children’s Care (TCC) is mandated to take in
learners from the community if their parents decided to have them schooled at
our facilities.
It
is just unfortunate that our facilities could no longer handle some 130
preschool children coming to us this school year.
So
far the center has only three classrooms – one of these is a 20-footer junked
container van converted into a classroom to accommodate at least 30 kids
sitting like packed sardines.
Actually
there used to be two fitted out container vans from Digicel Foundation. But
since Tembari did not have an office space and some place to store foodstuff
donations, the TCC management has opted to use one of the two containers for
this purpose.
This
school year, two small classes of at least 20 each will hold classes in two
makeshift classrooms on both wings of the container van, which serves as the
main classroom.
The
rest would be holding classes under the tree nearby.
Three
teachers, who are paid monthly stipends, handle the classes.
Meanwhile,
Tembari’s school building project has been put on hold pending the issuance of
a title covering the 3,500sqm-property on which the centre stands.
The
main classroom project sponsor – the Australian High Commission – has required
a legitimate land title to the property before it finally gives the go signal
for the classroom building construction.
The
cost of the project is more than K100,000 and the funds are just waiting to be
tapped.
One
of our early school project sponsors is AP Engineering Ltd based in Kokopo, East New Britain, which donated K7,000 to start off the
funding raising drive. APEL is owned by Filipino-PNG citizen Engineer Ariel
Parro.
The
other sponsor is the AkzoNobel, a paint maker.
If
you think you are able to help the Tembari kids with foodstuff to sustain the
center’s daily feeding program, please don’t hesitate to contact this blogger
through the email addresses provided below.
Meantime,
I would like to thank HomeGuard Construction for its generous donation.
As
you would know, HG would pop once in a while a generous cheque to cheer up the
Tembari children.
The
company just did last week and I would relay this gesture to the children once I delivered the
foodstuff to the center.
For
feedback, please email the blogger: aphernandez@thenational.com.pg and alfredophernandez@y7mail.com
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