Totoy, Hayward Sagembo, TCC president, and Engr Joe Buenaventura discussing how to install the water tank facility.By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
A Friend of Tembari Children
YESTERDAY, a mini-truck loaded with 100 pieces of hollow (cement) blocks came to The Center. Then another one arrived, this time carrying two cubic meters of fine sand.
I asked the first driver as to who sent for the materials and he told me: “Don Manaloto of Hideaway Hotel …”
Yes! I remember Don, the Filipino-expat general manager of Hideaway ... I talked to him a year ago at Hideway during the Hatid-Saya 2009 fundraising dinner-concert sponsored by the Filipino Association of PNG (FAPNG) which was held at the hotel.
Then, I realized that Don is also the general manager of the PNG Concrete Aggregates, a company which operates a people-and-environmentally-friendly sand-and-gravel quarry at 12 Mile outside of Port Moresby.
He sent the materials in partnership with two other Filipino-expatriates who are also helping the Tembari Children – Johnny Ala, owner of the ABC Builders and New Zealand-based construction engineer Joe Buenaventura. Joe is overseeing the two building projects at the Holiday Inn compound for the New Zealand-based construction company Canam Construction.
Joe bought the materials from PNG Concrete Aggregates and Don gave them at a giveaway price as the company’s assistance to The Center.
The cement bricks and sand and those cement bags and timber that Joe also bought will all go to the water facility project at The Center. They will be delivered this week.
I felt great. This project that I have been working on for The Center is gradually moving on.
This facility consists of a 1,000-gallon water tank, a connection of the access pipe to the water mainline at the settlement and a toilet-and-bath for the children.
The water tank and its attachments were donated by RH Foundation, the charity arm of RH (PNG) Group, while the expertise to install this –plumbing, carpentry and all will be provided by Joe and Johnny.
During the recent Hatid-Saya 2010 fundraising dinner-concert at Hideaway, Joe told Don about the Tembari Children who happened to be one of the two beneficiaries of the fundraiser. The other one is the Pediatrics Wards of the POM General Hospital.
“Did you know that the Tembari Children is Freddie’s project?” Joe said, referring to me.
And Don remembered, having talked to me last year about a possible news item that I intended to write for the business section of The National where I work.
Don, who is one of the advisers to the present leadership of FAPNG headed by businessman Joey Sena, immediately took interest in helping The Center.
Talking to me on the phone tonight, Don had asked a lot more questions, trying to find out how his two organizatons – the PNG Concrete Aggregates and Hideaway Hotel -- could fit in.
In fact, knowing that The Center is a day care and orphanage facility which now looks after 97 orphaned, unfortunate, abandoned and neglected children, Joe said he could send several mattress beds for the children.
He said that he is now in the process of renovating their bedroom facilities at Hideaway and he did not want to waste a lot of items, including beds.
But then I explained that our children go home to their foster-parents/guardians for the night and come back the next day for their preschool activities, and more importantly, for the day’s feeding.
Learning about the special Saturday lunch that I cook for the children, Don has offered to cater at least once a month for the children’s lunch -- to save me the trouble of cooking one weekend.
Which is really great!
Don also wanted to treat the Tembari Children to a weekend outing to his company’s quarry at 12-Mile, which has become a picnic ground for some friends in the city.
He developed the area into such a facility as his commitment to protect the ecology around the quarry grounds.
But the biggest news for the Tembari Children is that Don has committed his two companies’ support towards their upbringing into good members of the community, and to help them become good citizens of Papua New Guinea.
Don told me: “If there’s something the Tembari Children need, please go straight to me …”
My children – 97 of them – need a lot of things that would help them live a normal life. I have already assigned several of them to potential donors.
Now, should any one of them decide not to give, or is unable to provide the requested item, Don could expect a call from me.
To sum it all, the continuing inflow of help the Tembari Children are receiving from generous individuals and entities is awesome.
And quoting retired priest Fr John Glynn, operator of WeCaRe!, a funding NGO in Port Moresby, he told me in a recent email: “Comparing the assistance that the other feeding programs (13 in all) in Port Moresby are getting with what the Tembari Children get, I am just speechless …”
Besieged for more funding assistance by mothers who are operating feeding programs in and outside of Port Moresby, Fr John knows what he is talking about.
Delivery truck helpers unloading concrete bricks sent by PNG Concrete Aggregates.
A delivery truck from PNG Concrete Aggregates tipping over sand material to be used in installing the water tank facility at The Center. 
The water tank is shown next to the concrete bricks and empty oil drums.Email the writer: alfredophernandez@thenational.com.pg
jarahdz500@online.net.pg
freddiephernandez@yahoo.com
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