Tembari works on preschool’s land title

Lands Secretary John Ofoi stresses a point to British expat Mauricio Diaz, sales and marketing manager of telco Global Technologies, who is Tembari school project manager. Secretary Ofoi is scrutinizing the documents that Tembari has presented to him towards acquiring a title to the 3,500 square meter property it occupies at Oro settlement, 7 Mile outside Port Moresby. The Secretary has assured Tembari that he will expedite the processing of its land title application so it could start building a preschool for its beneficiary children. – Photo by ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ, Port Moresby, PNG

By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ

A Friend of Tembari Children

AS they say, “we are getting there …”

And this makes Tembari upbeat on the big prospect that it is going to have a title soon to the land its preschool center occupies.

It was the so-called turn of events that we at Tembari had never expected.

In our very first audience with Department of Lands Secretary John Ofoi last week, he assured me and my colleague Mauricio Diaz, a British expat-executive at a big IT company in Port Moresby, that all we have to do is complete the land titling requirements – survey map, sketches, plans, building plans and all – give them to him. He’ll take care of the rest.

Secretary Ofoi said: I’m taking the short route to award Tembari a land title … I will avail of the so-called “Ministerial Exemption” route … through which I could allot you the property for titling and nobody could ever lay claim over it …”

He said the other process is for our land title application to undergo scrutiny and evaluation by a lands board made up of people from different discipline. Depending on the outcome of the board’s evaluation, a decision to deny or award the title would be made.

It is an exercise that could go the short route or take a long-winding road.

The good Secretary said he was impressed with what Tembari is doing for many settlement children whose future was bleak until they where ushered in to Tembari’s loving arms.

“I’m very particular with groups like Tembari and I want to help it …”, Sec Ofo said after scrutinizing our documents and learning of the center’s plan on that piece of 3,500-square meter lot at Oro settlement at 7 Mile, outside Port Moresby.

He became interested in the preschool classroom building we are to build on property, which we hope could begin sometime this July.

“Tembari will get it (the land title) … and it will enjoy its use of this land for 99 years,” Secretary Ofoi said.

The title to the property is the very first requisite that the Australian High Commission said Tembari has to fulfill before it could green light the start of the preschool building construction.

The Aussie High Comm is the lead donor-sponsor of the school building project. The other project supporters are Hardware Haus, AzkoNobel, Malaysian Association of PNG (MAPNG), Filipino Association of PNG (FAPNG), PNG Stones, PNG Concrete Aggregates, AP Engineering Ltd of East New Britain, Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) Eda Ranu and the Lands Department.

Worth K100,000, the preschool building will house four classrooms for use by about 100 children who are Tembari beneficiaries and other settlement children with parents who can afford to support them financially.

Since Tembari is the only government-accredited CBO (community-based organization) at the settlement operating a preschool, it is mandated to accommodate preschool children from the community to get an early education together with Tembari children, who are abandoned, neglected and orphans.

But it is not only the 100 preschool kids that get the benefit of various services from the Tembari facility.

It is actually looking after about 200 unfortunate settlement children by providing them meals twice a day, from Monday to Saturday, sending 78 of them to elementary and primary school in Port Moresby, offering them other opportunities to learn like watching educational DVDs and kiddie movies, and cultural development programs such as involving them in cultural dances and song presentation and sport activities such as volleyball, football and rugby.

And most of all, the kids are given the tender, loving care that they are missing owing to the absence of their parents and most important, a home away from home.

The daily feeding activities are being made possible by sustained donations from RD Foundation, SVS Mart, High Energy Co, Pure Water Company, Pacific Industries Ltd, Malaysian Association in PNG (MAPNG), Hugo Canning, Filipino Association in PNG (FAPNG) and Homeguard Construction Ltd. There are individual donors whose foodstuff donation make the bulk of the monthly supplies but wished not to be unidentified.

The acquisition of a land title to Tembari’s premises is only the start of many things that would enhance the welfare and development of our beneficiary children.

So to Lands Secretary John Ofoi: Sir, I salute you for this gesture to help us provide a better life to our unfortunate beneficiary children.

The land title that you are going to award to Tembari will be the key to everything great, as far as our beneficiary children are concerned.

May your tribe increase.

Email the writer: ahernandez@thenational.com.pg and alfredophernandez@y7mail.com

Tembari nearing new highs

Penny Sage-embo (left) thanking corporate sponsors and supporters of Tembari’s daily feeding programme during the day care centre’s ninth anniversary on Saturday. With her is Queen of Tembari Phylis Topogo,14, one of the first beneficiary children who is attending secondary school.-  Nationalpics by ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ

 

Corporate guests during Saturday’s celebration that included Marina Van der Vlies (second from left), CEO of Digicel Foundation

By ALREDO P HERNANDEZ

A Friend of Tembari Children

 

THE Tembari Children’s Care (TCC) is on a roll.

The streak of progress that our day care facility has been enjoying since 2010 – the year when corporate sponsors and generous individual donors began arriving in good measure – could reach a higher peak this year.

That is when it finally starts putting up a K100,000-kit classrooms for its preschoolers and elementary schoolchildren.

And soon, it would get a land title to the 3,500-square meter property it occupies at Oro settlement outside of Port Moresby.

During its 9^th anniversary on Saturday, Penny Sage-embo, the founder of Tembari and the facility’s programme coordinator, told me these two milestones, which are now in sight, are making everybody at the center quite upbeat.

Finally after nine years of uphill struggle for recognition from the community hosting its home, Tembari is about to get there, so to speak.

All these were made possible by the sustained support by donors from the corporate world and from individuals who find Tembari’s calling something worthy of support.

It would be appropriate to recall once more that from 2003 to 2009 – a grinding six years in the life of the facility it never received any sustainable funding.

It was fortunate that in 2009, Digicel Foundation took notice of Penny’s endeavor to keep some 78 street children under its wings. That time, Penny was now operating as a day care center and also a preschool for its ward.

Queen of Tembari Phylis Topogo (left) warning a child for being a trouble-maker instead of studying hard in a skit that highlighted the big role of corporate sponsors and supporters in changing their lives – from being village street children to one who are now in school and having proper meals everyday. Topogo,14, who attends secondary school, was herself among the first few abandoned children who were taken in as beneficiary when Tembari Children’s Care was founded as a day care facility in 2003 by Penny Sage-embo. – Photo by ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ

The center has provided them a safe playground at its premises and fed them at least three times a week with kaw-kaw, greens and watery cordial.

With support from a few volunteer mothers who had chipped in to buy the foodstuff, Penny was able to keep the mind and soul of these unfortunate children intact and inspired.

And to boost Temabi’s early education program, Digicel Foundation provided it with two community learning centers (CLCs) in the form of container vans fitted into classrooms.

Fast forward to Saturday, the day when Tembari marked its 9^th year as a community-based organization registered with the Investment Promotion Authority (IPA).

Penny said: “We are looking forward to start a K100,000 school building middle of this year.”

“At the same time, we are hoping to soon acquire a title to the 3,500 square metre property that Tembari is occupying,” Sage-embo said.

She said the Department of Lands Secretary John Ofoi has assured the day care facility would be allocated the property towards its educational program for the settlement children.

Sagembo said that aside from operating a pre-school that benefits 40 Tembari children and another 60 from the settlement, Tembari is going to progress into an elementary school programme, initially with each class in Grade 1 and Grade 2.

“They will hold classes at the four-classroom building that we are going to build by July,” she said.

Right now, the Tembari preschoolers are holding classes in two community learning centres (CLCs) donated by Digicel Foundation in 2009.

Sage-embo said this school year, Tembari would be looking after 200 children, providing them meals twice a day, from Monday to Friday and one meal on Saturday.

Of the 200 children, 58 are in primary schools in Port Moresby with 30 of them at Wardstrip in Gordon. The rest are in other schools in the city.

Likewise, the facility has 67 elementary schoolchildren with 58 of them at Wardstrip.

It is also providing early childhood education, or preschool, to 40 children.

Aside from this, Tembari is taking care of 25 non-schoool age children, who like the rest, are neglected, abandoned and orphaned children.

In a brief remark before guests that included corporate executives and community leaders who attended last Saturday’s open house activities, Sage-embo thanked Tembari’s s corporate sponsors and supporters of its daily feeding programme.

The sponsors are RD Foundation, SVS Mart, High Energy Co, Pure Water Company, Pacific Industries Ltd, Malaysian Association in PNG (MAPNG), Filipino Association in PNG (FAPNG), RH Foundation, YES Ltd (money remittance service), Hugo Canning, High Energy Co, Homeguard Construction Ltd, RBP Trading and a number of individual donors who wished not to be named.

Likewise, Sage-embo thanked the sponsors of the school building project that included Australian High Commission, Hardware Haus, AzkoNobel, Malaysian Association of PNG (MAPNG), Filipino Association of PNG (FAPNG), AP Engineering of East New Britain, Eda Ranu, the Lands Department, PNG Concrete and Aggregates, PNG Stones Ltd, RH Group (PNG), Paradise Interiors, Curtain Bros and Associated Builders & Contractors (ABC).

The lunch food served to the kids on Saturday was sponsored by YES Ltd, a Filipino-operated money remittance service in Port Moresby and individual donors who wished not to be mentioned.

Tembari preschoolers perform a nursery song in front of guests.

Personally from me: Our donors and supporters are superb. They have never failed me when I approached them for something that the Tembari kids needed.

It is for this reason that we’re working hard for the sake of the children whose future all lies in the hands of our donors and supporters.

The foodstuff they sent has kept the Tembari children’s spirits high and their stomachs full.

But while they are helping us feed our children, donors have also dug deeper into their pockets to provide them education.

Food and money -- two elements in the lives of the less-fortunate Tembari children -- are combining to make them realize that some big, bright future also awaits them.

And with the tender loving care that Tembari provides, their lives are gradually going full circle.

Tembari’s preschoolers await lunch last Saturday.

Tembari preschoolers queue for lunch last Saturday, after the Open House with invited guests.

Kids receive donuts and flavored milk for snacks, courtesy of SVS mart, YES Ltd, Mr & Mrs Ronald Dizon of Monian Ltd, Nara Muniandy of The National, The Water Company and Pacific Industries.

 Tinned fish from RD Foundation and bottled water from Pure Water Company. RDF is supplying Tembari with 15 cartons of tinned fish every month while Pure Water Company delivers every month bulk water to fill up a 5,000 liter tank and also supplies the center with  20 containers of purified water (19 liters) every week. Another company, the High Energy Co, also supplies the facility with 5,000 liters of drinkable water every month.

 Crowd from the community watch the Tembari children's sing-sing performance.

 The SVS supermarket supplies Tembari with 10 cartons of flavored milk every month. The freezer and the fridge in the picture are donated by the Australian High Commission. 

Preschool children shows off unused 2011 diaries which they will use as writing pads. The donation from The Ella Murray International School (TEMIS) in Port Moresby comprised 16 cartons, with each containing 80 pieces of diaries. – All pictures by ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ

 

Email the blogger: ahernandez@thenational.com.pg  and alfredophernandez@y7mail.com

Tembari marks 9th year with open house at center

By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ

A Friend of Tembari Children

THE Tembari Children’s Care (TCC), a day-care facility, will mark its 9^th year as a government-recognized community-based organization (CBO) with an open house at the center at Oro settlement outside Port Moresby on Saturday, March 10.

Penny Sage-embo, Tembari founder and programme coordinator, said the centre will showcase its on-going programs for about 200 beneficiary children that included early childhood education (pre-school), elementary and primary schooling and feeding, among others.

“This year’s celebration would allow us show the center’s progress from 2010 when our generous sponsors and supporters began coming in with assistance,” Sage-embo said.

Founded in 2003, Tembari began with a handful of street children who were taken care of by some volunteer mothers from the settlement.

Those days, the children, who were orphans, abandoned and neglected, were provided simple meals of kaw-kaw and veggies at least three times a week, alongside motherly care from volunteers.

It was only in 2009 when Tembari began offering early childhood education to its beneficiary children with help from Digicel Foundation, which provided a classroom facility and teaching materials.

That time, there were already 78 beneficiary children, with most of them preschoolers who were provided meals at least three times a week. Their schooling was handled by three volunteer teachers.

It was only in 2010 when the centre began feeding the children from Monday to Saturday with rice and protein and occasional fresh milk, thanks to the generous assistance from a number of corporate and individual sponsors.

The anniversary activities will start at 8.20am, with the arrival of guests comprising donor-sponsors and supporters.

A group of Tembari chidldren’s sing-sing group will perform as part of TCC’s cultural program.

This year, we expect to look after 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 that also include preschoolers from settlement families with fathers and mothers who have means to support them adequately.

These parents send their children to Tembari because it is the only preschool facility operating at Oro settlement.

It is good that this year’s school fees of our school children have been shouldered by the government. However, the cost of their school projects would be paid by sponsors.

The March 3 event will also see the feeding of the beneficiary children and in this occasion, I would like to serve them something especial for their Saturday lunch.

If you think you are able to donate protein such as sausages or chicken and bread (buns or loaves) and cordial drinks towards this occasion, please don’t hesitate to let me know through the email provided below.

They would also welcome – with open arms – ice cream!

This once-in-a-blue-moon lunch treat would make the Tembari children’s day very special.

Contact the blogger: ahernandez@thenational.com.pg

Homeguard Construction donates K1,000 towards Tembari feeding program

       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

RH Trading staff cheer Tembari kids on Chinese New Year

By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ

A Friend of Tembari Children

RH TRADING, Papua New Guinea’s biggest trading house,   capped the celebration of the Chinese New Year this year with a visit to the Tembari children on Saturday.

From January 23 this year, Chinese people across the globe celebrated the Year of the Dragon.

Led by CC Ang, general manager of RH Hypermart, the group composed of Filipinos and local personnel came to the centre with a lot of goodies for the kids.

More than 100 Tembari children showed up to each receive “Ang Pao”, a red envelop usually presented at gatherings or on holidays such as the Chinese New Year. 

The envelopes contained token amount, which delighted the children as it was the first time that they received a gift such as this one.

The red colour of the envelope symbolises good luck and is supposed to ward off evil spirits.

Ang said they visited the children to present to them several goodies such rice, noodles, milk, tinned fish and candies, among others to mark the close of the Chinese New Year’s celebration.

Hayward Sagembo, president of the Tembari Chidren’s Care (TCC) thanked the visitors, saying that it was one of those occasions that the Tembari children would receive visitors from the expatriate community.

Sagembo noted that groups from the Malaysian community such as RH Trading has been one of those that continued to be around to bring foodstuff donations badly needed by the children.

Tembari is a day-care facility providing preschool education to more than 100 children alongside elementary and primary schooling to more than 100 others.

The centre also provides twice-a-day feeding session from Monday to Friday to the beneficiary children, with help from various donors and supporters in Port Moresby.

If you think you are able to donate something to the children, please don’t hesitate to contact this blogger through the email provided below.

For feedback, please email the blogger: aphernandez@thenational.com.pg and alfredophernandez@y7mail.com

'Santa Fredo' cheers Tembari kids

APH playing Santa Claus on Saturday to Tembari kids.

Nathan Ho (left) says that RH Hypermart would like to see the children get an education.

The RH Hypermart big boss Nathan Ho (center) with his 20 staff pose for a picture with the Tembari children.

By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ

A Friend of Tembari Children

CHASING away those rain clouds that have been hanging over Port Moresby for almost every day, the sun stayed big on Saturday, giving us a great day during our modest Christmas hamper party for the 200 Tembari kids.

And I had a great time giving away to them Christmas hampers. I was back as “Santa Fredo”.

The Tembari kids were a happy lot: each received four sets of Christmas presents.

Two gift pacts were distributed by the super-generous RH Hypermarket.

As my personal Christmas presents to them, I gave away two sets of bulky Christmas hampers.

All in all, there were 800 Christmas gift pacts and these cheered the kids no end.

Don’t be surprised – each of the RH Hypermarket gift packs contained favorite snack foods.

My hampers contained a lot more – fresh orange and apples, kiddie books, toys, candies, snack foods, tinned fish, flavored powder drinks and school items.

But the big story here was the invasion of about 20 RH Hypermarket staff, led by their boss Nathan Ho, executive director of RH Trading, the trading arm of RH (PNG) Group.

Coming in full force to the Tembari center, the RH Hypermarket army brought with them several boxes of Christmas presents, two sets of barbecue grills, lots of pork, lots of chicken wings, lots of sausages, of buns, 48 liters of ice cream, tons of bottled water and a crates of candies.

The Tembari kids could not just believe their eyes.

At the foot of the Christmas Tree were heaps and heaps of Christmas presents. Just like last Christmas.

I had promised them that they will again get a lot this Christmas.

Just like last year, I played Santa Claus to them on Saturday.

During our hamper party last Christmas, the kids had called me “Santa Fredo”. It was a cue from them that I should deliver again this Christmas.

And I did, thanks to my generous donors.

Because of them, I was able to produce 400 Christmas hampers which I raised from my donors: RH Hypermarket, RD Tuna, SVS supermarket, Pacific Industries, Buk bilong Pikinini, Homeguard Construction, Paradise Consultants, Your Express Service (YES) Ltd, and from expatriate-friends led by couples Celia and Caezar Nunez, Abet and Corina Barles and Claire and Cesar Tungol, and TJ and Gina Khoo; Rosa Yip; and Tony Valdez, Lourdes and Jocelyn - all of HiTRON.

Well, they were the same groups who supported my Christmas hamper party last year.

In a brief remark, Ho said told his staff and the audience that RH Trading has made Tembari children its beneficiary under the company’s RH Cares Programme 2011 with the motto “Save the Children”.

In fact, he brought a nice banner proudly announcing that our kids were this year’s beneficiaries under such a program.

“We would like to see the Tembari children become good citizens and good leaders of this country in the future,” Ho said.

Speaking of the many Christmas presents they brought with them, he said it was their way of cheering up the Tembari children during the holiday season.

That’s why the Tembari kids had been inspired to put up two sing-sing groups to entertain our special guests.

And of course, the RH Trading group came not unprepared.

While half of the staff manned the barbecue grill, the other half had engaged the children in parlor games like sack race, hula-hoop, volleyball and ball race.

Watching the kids, I was pretty sure they were having great fun.

And not to be left out, our 10 volunteer mothers also got their hampers from me. Theirs were a bit special – each contained “meri blouses” – something I knew they would really appreciate more than the foodstuff that came with their hampers.

With this, I am proud to report to my donors about a great day at Tembari on Saturday.

You guys made our day. You made Christmas for the Tembari kids.

There are no other words to describe your kind generosity.

And for this, I owe you big.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL.

APH with his Christmas hampers.

APH stands in front of the RH Hypermart banner.

Tembari kids queuing for their Christmas hampers.

RH Hypermart staff distribute Christmas presents to Tembari kids.

Ice cream is served.

RH Hypermart food brigade... at the grills with chicken wings and sausages.

Lunch time ....

For feedback, please email the blogger: ahernandez@thenational.com.pg and alfredophernandez@y7mail.com