To our Dear Benefactors:

I WILL be away in Manila for my annual work break starting Saturday, April 10, but activities at The Center will continue to progress, thanks to the warm support that the Tembari Children have been getting from all of YOU over the past two months.

My Saturday special feeding, in which lunch meal is sponsored by generous individuals at a cost of K150 (US$51) or so per meal, and of which I cook personally right at The Center, is being postponed in the meantime. However, feeding at lunch will be a regular activity from Monday to Saturday.

So far, we have enough rice to cover the month of April (until I return on May 10) but we have to make do with whatever food assistance such as tinned fish/meat and frozen fish donation to go with the daily rice meal. And the usual veggies.

The milk-serving program will go on every Saturday until the donated milk is consumed by Saturday, April 24.

The first milk-drinking of the 83 kids took place on Saturday, April 3. The donated milk is to cover four Saturdays, starting on April 3.

Ideally, milk-serving should be made once a day, which requires at least 21 liter-pack of milk to cover the 83 kids on record, with four kids sharing a liter of milk (250ml per serving).

Or for a total of 126 liter-packs for six days (Monday to Saturday) or 10.5 dozens. The daily milk-serving would certainly boost and sustain the nutrients that every kid would get from the food served to them everyday.

There are some projects in the pipeline being pursued by one benefactor, that include the installation of water supply system, the procurement of 40 kiddy classroom chairs and drinking cups and plates.

We are also looking forward to having a high-pressure LPG cooking stove that would make cooking the daily meals faster and more efficient. Right now, we could only make do with firewood and makeshift dirty kitchen fashioned from a junk crude oil drum to cook at least 9kg or rice and 25 liters of soup – a SMOKEY exercise that could take an hour or so.

The Center also needs electricity to operate some gadgets like laptop, printer and basic lighting. We are looking at having a Honda gen-set, or maybe, a solar power panel, depending on their feasibility as determined by one of our benefactors who is looking at it.

I wish that all this could materialize soon enough so that the life of our kids would find some drastic change for the better, and to make the job of our volunteer mothers and fathers easier and more efficient.

The latest news is that there are ten (10) new orphans/neglected/vulnerable children who are now being processed for admission to The Center.

The new ones come from the ATS Oro Settlement. This brings to 93 the number of kids that The Center would be looking after from here on.

And the immediate effect is that whatever food supply – rice, tinned fish/meat, frozen fish and milk -- The Center has at present would have to be re-apportioned, re-programmed, with every kid being covered properly, so that it would last till the next donation comes along.

In case, you wish to communicate with The Center, please get in touch with Mrs Penny Sagembo, the founder of Tembari Children Care (TCC), through cell phone 7261-9552, or Mr Hayward Sagembo, the TCC president, on 7638-7526.

For feedback or comments, I could be reached through yahoo email: freddiephernandez@yahoo.com or jarahdz500@online.net.pg

Thanks a million for the many wonderful things YOU have started for the Tembari Children.

Right now, their lives are looking up.


ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
A Friend of Tembari Children