Another milestone for Tembari children

The graduates of Tembari preschool. Of the 38 who will move to Grade 1 next January, 16 were unable to attend as they did not have the attire required for the occasion, as their guardians were unable to afford it. - Picture by AP HERNANDEZ



Blogger AP Hernandez poses for a picture with the preschool graduates. More photos after story. - Picture by TEMBARI


By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
A Friend of Tembari Children

ON SATURDAY, I felt as if I was a father of a child graduating from the preschool.

But then, I felt being more than just one father, because the 38 Tembari preschool children who hurdled their preschool education to move to Grade 1 next January, were all my children.
I have been taking care of them, alongwith TCC trio, Rishabh, Penny and Hayward; for quite sometime now, looking for people who would provide them food, money, materials, services and above all tender, loving care.

So, on Saturday, the people at Tembari were very proud.

This was because their effort to promote the well being of 100 preschoolers, 38 of whom who just graduated, and another batch 79 older children attending elementary and primary schools, had reached another milestone.

The impression from Mrs Lyneth Turia, school head mistress of Wardstrip Elementary School, about such endeavor was heartwarming.

She said: “Tembari is doing a great job of providing early education to the community’s less-fortunate school-age children and it is my duty to give them an opportunity to advance in their education -- in my school,” she said.

She said that the 38 graduates will get their slots at her school when it opens next January.

In fact, Mrs Turia has been a big fan of Tembari children, whom she began taking in since 2009, when the first batch of preschoolers moved to Grade 1.

This school year, Tembari has 100 preschoolers and 79


When the 38 new Grade 1’s enter Wardstrip next year, Tembari will be having a total of 117 learners.

“For the 2012 school year, Tembari children would be accounting for more than 10% of the total intake of Wardstrip elementary,” she said, adding that the school will have 1,085 places next year.

And for next year, our preschool would take more than 40 new learners – from families with means to educate their children and from those who don’t have, and therefore Tembari would have to look after them.

cost. Somehow we can do more for tembari children, but for more resources we need some more donors.


We are personally appealing to anybody who is able enough to
Since the number of beneficiaries have increased by 38, whose school fees would cost about K3,800 (US$1,700), on top of those who are now in the elementary and primary levels, we should be doubling our efforts to find donors to shoulder the cost. Somehow we can do more for tembari children, but for more resources we need some more donors, as per rishabh (founder) says, We need to do learn some Olympic games to tembari children that they can itentify on global level.


I am personally appealing to anybody who is able enough to fund the education of the Tembari children.

This is an opportunity for you to help these children, by taking a stake in their future.

Help us educate them.

Your input into their learning could shape the kind of persons they would be years from now.

In future, they could be one of those who would be running this nation.

We – you and me – should be concerned.

Wardstrip Elementary School Head Mistress, Lyneth Turia (left), hands over the prize to one of the preschooler's top student.

A mother scrutinizes the report card of her preschooler.

Hayward Sagembo, TCC’s Co-Founder and Director, and Penny Sagembo, TCC’s Co-Founder and Co-President, show off a clay pot dish they prepared for the graduation guests led by Wardstrip Elementary School Head Mistress Lyneth Turia.

Janet Tema, Tembari's coordinator for early childhood program, distributes the report cards to her learners.

Volunteer moms preparing lunch for the children after the graduation program on Saturday. - Pictures by AP HERNANDEZ

For feeback, email the blogger: ahernandez@thenational.com.pg and aphernandez58@yahoo.com

Oro children in cultural show

A GROUP of children from Oro settlement at 7 Mile outside Port Moresby will hold a cultural show as their share in the observance of the International Children’s Day.

The cultural presentation will be held at the Botanical Garden’s Picnic Point on November 26.

Numbering about 100, the children will be performing traditional dances of their home villages, which lie along the Kumusi River in Oro province.

The participants, who ages ranged from 18 and below, represented the seven districts of Oro settlement.

During the daylong cultural presentation, the quest for Miss Tembari 2012 will also be held.

Each district will have a contestant to vie for the title, who will be judged according to their performance as cultural dancers and on their replies as to why they would like to be the Queen of Tembari.

Three community leaders from the settlement and three expatriate guests will make up the judging panel.

The title winner will raise funds for the Tembari children during the year of her reign.

The cultural show also aimed to raise funds to build a Tembari Chilren’s Care (TCC) resource centre in Oro province and to support the children’s education.

Donations towards the children’s education will be highly appreciated.

Sponsored by Tembari, the even is part of the day care facility’s community outreach programme.

Gate tickets are available at K15 – adults, and K5 – children.

For more information, please contact Patison Kopada, Tembari administrator, on telephone 726-19552 and cellphone 726-19552 and telephone 3422-047.

Curtain Bros delivers 20TEU container

Justin McGann walks up the hill to measure the length of the perimeter that borders the property occupied by Tembari Children’s Care at Oro community at 7 Mile outside Port Moresby.

Justin comes down from the hill, still counting the paces he made from the time he started going up the terrain. – Photos by ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ, Port Moresby, PNG.


By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
A Friend of Tembari Children


ON Saturday, a 20TEU container was delivered to Tembari.

It is a donation from Curtains Bros, an engineering giant in Papua New Guinea, with headquarters in Australia, that is involved in massive projects at various PNG LNG sites in the highlands and elsewhere.

The delivery day, Mr Cameron got in touch with us to find out where Tembari is located. And we told him.

Hearing about the place, he said he’s familiar with it. There would be no problem getting there with the goods, he assured us.

The container donation was a response to our earlier appeal for such a facility.

Earlier, Justin McGann, another executive at Curtain Bros, sent an email to say that his company would like to donate one unit, which we could use to store our foodstuff and other facilities like freezers, refrigerators, cooking wares and many others.

Until today, foodstuff donations are kept at a container that used to be a classroom that also doubles as an office, a library/reading space and of course, storage.

The whole place is a mess, with all these things sitting together in a very tight place.

At Tembari, we have been feeing the need for a decent space to work in and this could only come once another container is given to us by some kind donor.
Finally, on Saturday, the thing arrived.

And aside from sending us the container, Curtain Bros would also like to send one of its bulldozers to reclaim some square meters from the hillside that borders our paved premises.

We have started demolishing that portion of the hill so we could get some more space for Tembari premises, in preparation for the construction of a classroom building for our preschool children.

But a few hours bulldozer work had cost us a fortune – courtesy of the contractor who charged us K900 for a five-hour work. And yet the job has remained unfinished.

Mr McGann had earlier visited the Tembari premises to see for himself the extent of earthwork that would be needed once he sent us the “dozer”.

And curious about the perimeter that borders our property that covers more than 3,000sqm, he went up the hill and measured it by walking and counting the steps he made.

An experienced bushman, Mr McGann was accurate almost to the mark when he came down from the hill with his measurement.

And he told us that should we need a surveyor to prepare a map of the property that Tembari occupies, he could organize a team of surveyor quickly – for free.

In PNG, the services of a surveyor cost a fortune and a penny-less charity like Tembari would not be able to afford it.

Curtain Bros is standing by for this. Just holler them.

Thanks, Justin McGann .. thanks Rod Cameron. Thanks Curtain Bros for your generosity.

Email the writer: ahernandez@thenational.com.pg and aphernandez58@yahoo.com

Filipino community adopts Tembari children this Christmas

The sing-sing group of Tembari that will perform at the Christmas part of the Filipino Association of PNG on Sunday, December 4. The children have been invited as FAPNG guests. – Photo by ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ, Port Moresby, PNG.


By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
A Friend of Tembari Children

THAT Christmas is finally here has been confirmed to me by the giant Christmas tree at the parking lot of the Vision City Megamall in Port Moresby.

And of course, the stores that have begun to fill up the first and second floor of the mall have also started dressing up their interiors in time for the Christmas holidays.

And the good news is that the Filipino community has decided to adopt the Tembari children this Christmas.

Already, the Filipino Association of PNG (FAPNG) has launched a campaign to collect old and used clothing and other goodies, which it will give as Christmas presents to the children of the Tembari Children Care (TCC), a day care facility at 7 Mile outside the city.

Starting this Monday, FAPNG will set up donation drop boxes at Vision City Hypermart, SVS supermart BS Mart and at Filipino restaurant The Point.

The goodies would be turned over to Tembari children early next month, shortly before the association holds annual Christmas party on December 4.

The party has to be held earlier as most of FAPNG members are flying home for the holidays.

At its latest meeting, the FAPNG council decided that the Pinoy’s coming Christmas celebration should involve the community instead of enjoying the day among themselves.

This way, the event would have relevance that FAPNG has been trying to achieve – to cheer up unfortunate children who, luckily, belong to Tembari.

And at the party, 10 Tembari children will be invited to meet the Filipino children –face to face. It would be a new experience for the Pinoy kids meeting their Papua New Guinean counterparts.

For its part, the 10 selected children are now practicing some traditional songs and dances that they will present to the Filipino community.

This is the first time ever a sing-song group (cultural group) would feature at the Filipino Christmas function.

I have been informed that FAPNG is considering adopting the Tembari children – for good - as a way of giving back to the community.

One reason is that if the group could focus its attention to the 200 or so less – privilege children of the facility, it would be able to witness whatever transformation they would undergo.

This way, the Filipinos would know if their assistance to Tembari is bearing fruits.

All this boils down to one important thing: That the Filipino community has taken up a big stake in the future of the Tembari children, and it wants to make sure that it is playing a vital part in changing their lives for the better.

By the way, FAPNG is headed by the new president, Rey Angeles, the proponent of the “adopt-the-Timbari Children” project.

An appeal: Christmas goodies for Tembari Children

Santa Fredo distributing Xmas hampers to 114 Tembari children during a Christmas party last year. Santa Fredo is appealing for donors of Christmas items that he plans to distribute on December 17.

Christmas goodies distributed to 114 Tembari children during a Christmas party last year. Gift items were raised from goodies sent in by generous donors. This Christmas, there will be 200 kids who are looking forward to Chrismas presents.


By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
A Friend of Tembari Children

I AM PERSONALLY appealing to people who are financially able to help on behalf of my children – the Tembari kids.

Christmas is fast-approaching; the holiday season, however, would mean nothing to them. Blame this on their poverty.

In fact, each and every one of our 200 beneficiary children could only survive everyday because of the food and the special care they receive from The Center.

Otherwise, life for them would be miserable, always in the fang of persistent hunger. And outside the premises of The Center, hunger is everywhere.

And the poverty of the Tembari kids makes Christmas irrelevant.

Help me put meaning to the Birth of Jesus on the lives of these unfortunate children because right now, Christmas would just remain a flat, colorless word to them – materially and spiritually.

So, this coming Yuletide season, make it a bit hopeful, joyful and meaningful for them, at least on the material side of things.

Play an invisible Big Santa to them.

Send something that would make them happy – candies, chocolates, foodstuff, toys, clothes, or anything that you think would help them better their everyday life.

Did you see the smiles of your own kids when you gave them their presents last Christmas?

You can have the pleasure of imagining the same when the Tembari children receive your goodwill.

I’m pretty sure coughing up a few kina for Christmas stuffs wouldn’t necessarily make you poor.

If you have some idea about how to cheer up these kids, don’t hesitate to let me know.

I would be more than happy to coordinate and plan with you. My contacts are 324-6712 (office landline at The National newspaper, Editorial Department) and 72231984 (my cell phone number). Or my email addresses at the end of this blog.

My plan is to prepare a plastic bag of goodies (or hamper if you wish) for each of the Tembari children, which we would like to distribute on Saturday, December 17, during my special cooking gig at The Center.

(I wish, I could take their pictures with the goodies! And show them to you…)

This would be a big day for them, I’m pretty sure of this, having experienced the same during my younger days at out school’s Christmas party.

Help me make this a Christmas party for them on December 17, a Saturday, where they could sing carols while clutching in their hands a bag of goodies that you have sent.

It won’t cost you a lot to be a part of this special occasion. But the dividends would be tenfold because the 200 Tembari children will feel you are all Heaven-sent.

Contented children – the privileged ones like yours -- never think this way.

Of course, your other best option this Christmas is to ignore – totally ignore -- and imagine you’re not part of humanity that is about to honor the Holy Infant Jesus.

But to all of you, anyway, Merry Christmas!

Email the blogger: ahernandez@thenational.com.pg and aphernandez58@yahoo.com

Curtain Bros (PNG) donates container van

The Tembari Children’s Care compound. - More pics after the story.


By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
A Friend of Tembari Children

LAST Friday, I got a surprise news from the email: Curtain Bros (PNG) of Port Moresby would like to donate a 20TEU container van to Tembari.

The company is one of the prestigious and dominant groups operating in PNG doing an impressive array of engineering and transport expertise to the resource and construction industries. (visit http://www.curtainbros.com.pg)

With the real state boom in and out of the capital city alongside the booming construction business triggered by the on-going LNG projects, Curtain Bros has become one of the busiest of engineering groups.

Justin McGann, an executive at Curtain Bros, said the container van would help us store our foodstuff and other properties.

I don’t know how the company knew of our storage problems.

But I supposed that Curtain Bros is among the hundreds of companies in my email file receiving weekly updates on Tembari activities through my blog site www.tembari.blogspot.com.

And in one of my blog postings, I appealed for a donation of a container van which we could use as storage.

Curtain Bros had asked where Tembari could be found as it would like to deliver the item as soon as possible.

I really appreciate the company’s gesture.

It’s quite timely because we are accumulating materials donations – from cookware to white goods such as refrigerators and freezers, bags of rice and flour, cartons of tinned fish and cordial drinks – and storing them has become a big problem.

We badly need a secure storage for our food supply and materials and properties.

Just for instance, a few days ago, we received a donation of 67 cartons of foodstuff and such were more than enough to clog up every space available at our little office, which happens to be a renovated container van also.

On top of this are foodstuff delivered by donors just a few days ago.

Sometime last year, on the night immediately after the first delivery of several bags of rice and cartons of fresh milk was made, courtesy of one of our earliest donors, a group of village raskols tried to break into the container van where the foodstuff were stored.

But the container van probed to be a sturdy piece of steel enclosure, and the raskols took off empty handed.

Immediately, we reported the incident to the community leadership, who later identified the culprits and warned them never to touch Tembari again.

But we don’t want to be too trusting.

The container van is the only solution to frustrating future theft.

Since then, I have never stopped wishing for one (container van) for Tembari.

Also, we have started expanding our premises to provide space for future facilities like the food storage out of container van from Curtain Bros.

What I am trying to say is that we are trying to reclaim several square meters of land area from the hillside immediately next to the Tembari center.

We are doing this using a hired bulldozer to scrape the hillside to carve out new area of paved grounds around our premises.

So far, we had done two days of land-scraping through a hired bulldozer, costing us at least K1,000 (US$435) for a four-hour equipment use.

But there’s still a big area to cover, which would mean more kina to bleed on.

I hope Curtain Bros appreciate our needs and spare us one of their earthmoving machines – for free -- to complete the job for us.

But whatever further assistance that Curtain Bros could extend to Tembari on behalf of our beneficiary children, we would greatly appreciate it.

Help from our supporters has always been a big deal.

But the impact of the gesture is greater when it comes from the unexpected -- such as Curtain Bros.

A million thanks to you.


An unfinished portion of ground works at Tembari premises. The earthwork was carried out by a hired bulldozer over two days but the job has not been completed so far. Tembari is reclaiming some paved ground from the hillside as part of its ground-expansion project to accommodate a 19m x 7m classroom building for construction by January 2012.







The front of Tembari compound showing landfill from the earthwork.


Email the blogger for reaction: ahernandez@thenational.com.pg and aphernandez58@yahoo.com

Resource developer Vanimo Jaya Ltd donates computer

Chew Pang Heng (center) with Hayward Sagembo (left), president of Tembari Children's Care (TCC) and Andrew Tiong, RH (PNG) Group general manager for operations. Mr Chew and a group of Malaysian Chinese expatriates belonging to the Methodist Church in Port Moresby visited Tembari sometime ago for a fellowship with the children.


By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
A Friend of Tembari Children

FINALLY after so much delay, Tembari is again able to get a working computer to help Patison, our administrator, and Penny, Tembari’s founder and program coordinator, document statistics on our beneficiary children, whose number boomed to 200, more or less, from 78 at the end of 2009.

As a legally-registered community-based organization (CBO), Tembari has grown in such a way that dealing with its statistics has ceased to be a joke and instead became a nightmare.

And we don’t have a working computer. The one that we were using conked out many weeks ago, leaving us helpless with our statistics work.

Our growth could be described as “by leaps and bounds” in terms of the number of beneficiary children we are looking after these days and in terms of so-called properties that we started accumulating at the start of 2010 to these days that included forks and spoons, plates, glasses, pots and cookware, chairs, books, stationery, foodstuff – from bags of rice to cartons of tinned fish and snack foods -- to the bigger items like refrigerators (we have two units) and freezers (two units), audio visual facilities (two units of DVD players and a flat screen), computer sets (two units) and furniture and fixtures.

This latest figure of our population, which is 200, is threatening to increase a bit more, because the number of unfortunate and less-privileged children in the community seemed to increase every time and the temptation to list them into Tembari system, as far as the management is concerned, is getting irresistible.

But I have always restrained the Tembari management from doing so, telling that “please, let’s keep our population at that … 200 ... because finding new sources of food and funding is now beginning to get difficult”, -- to which a new donor, who learned of my little problem, has seemed to agree with me.

And not mention our paid staff composed of preschool teachers, administrator and volunteer mothers whose records have to be put in black-and-white.

But before I get on with my statistics despair, I would like to thank our computer donor – the Vanimo Jaya Ltd, a resource developer whose operations are based in Vanimo, a far-flung north-western PNG township on the borders of Indonesia’s West Papua province (Irayan Jaya) and Papua New Guinea.

The Port Moresby-based Vanimo Jaya is further divided into three or more business concerns involved in logging, sawmill, real estate, timber exports and heavy equipment-providing.

When its director Chew Pang Heng visited Tembari last month, along with his fellow members in the Methodist Church composed of Malaysian-Chinese expats in Port Moresby for a fellowship with the children, he noticed that our CPU (computer) at the office was not plugged into the power-source.

“What must be the problem?” he inquired and I told him that it (CPU) did not have power, would not boot, and therefore, was practically “dead”.

And I told him the million things that we have to document, among them the children’s individual profiles, school records (both preschool and elementary/primary) and of course our growing number of small and big properties from donors.

I told Mr Chew that the schoolchildren’s statistics alone – names, school marks, ages, sex, and many more -- were killing both Penny and Patison as they could not just do it manually.

And worse, the current school year is ending and a new one is coming.

That means updated stats on the children should be ready by January so that we could present it to potential donors who may be able to pay for their school fees.

Not to mention the communications we have to send out to potential donors and groups seeking to know what Tembari is all about.

Mr Chew had one resolve: “No worries, Alfredo, you’ll get a new one … give me sometime … that’s good as done…”

So, last Thursday, he called me to tell the good news that I could pick up the CPU anytime, which I did last Friday.

We have to organize our records, most important, our financial records.

Because very soon, a volunteer auditor from some prestigious audit group in Port Moresby would start looking into our records – funds, funding sources, properties, spending, disbursement and all – and come up with an official financial statement that would show our financial standing as a CBO receiving donated funds and materials.

The auditor’s concern would be the funds that went into Tembari’s two bank accounts with Bank South Pacific and Westpac Bank.

For all you know, during the last three months, a total of K50,000 (about US$22,000) went into our two bank accounts – a combined donation from the Malaysian Association of PNG (MAPNG) and the Filipino Association of PNG (FAPNG).

The first question seemed to be, as far as the auditor is concerned is: How are we managing our funds?

All this should be put in black and white, and that is through statistics that we could only make a reality with the new computer unit that is now at hand.

I know how important such financial statements are, myself being an accountant many years ago.

And these days, funding sources and funding institutions are more particular with financial statements that charity groups like Tembari would be able to present should it decide to seek funding.

A credible financial statement is a big plus for any fund seekers like Tembari, especially so when it was certified by a chartered (licensed) accountant-auditor.

And to achieve this, all will have to begin with properly organized figures and such could only be processed properly with the use of the computer.

During those days when I was doing accounting jobs – posting and recording figures and preparing the financial statements -- we did everything manually, and computer as they are known today were still unheard of.

And as Tembari moves on, it would be dealing with a lot of statistics, which have to be computer-processed.

Like for instance, this little incident that I encountered yesterday at the supermarket in Port Moresby.

I was shopping around when one of our regular donors – Elaine Blagnaut, a white South African expatriate with RBP Trading in Port Moresby – crossed my path and broke the news to me:

“We’re going to have an early Christmas party for Tembari kids last week of November,” she told me.

I knew immediately why the early Christmas party: They will be flying back to South Africa for the Christmas holidays and that they would like to cheer the children, as they did last year, before going away.

“I need to know how many kids we got now, how many girls, how many boys, their ages, their clothes’ sizes ... and so on and so forth … okay …?”

Yeah. 200 kids. It’s a long list to tabulate.

Thanks Mr Chew for the computer. It will make our job doing the stats a bit easy this time.

Mr Chew (second from left)with Pastor King Ming Wu (left) and Andrew Tiong pose with Tembari children.- Photos by AP HERNANDEZ, Port Moresby, PNG.

Email the blogger: ahernandez@thenational.com.pg and aphernandez58@yahoo.com