Early Christmas cheer comes to Tembari children

Eleven-year-old Megan Potgieter dressing up a Christmas Tree at the Tembari Center on Saturday. She also played Girl Santa to the 114 Tembari children by cheering them up with toy car models, Barbie-like dolls and lollies and candies. (More pictures after this story)


By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
A Friend of Tembari Children

ON SATURDAY, South African girl Megan Potgieter, 11, returned to The Center to play Little Santa to the 114 Tembari children.

She first visited the facility early this year to cheer up the Tembari kids with ice cream in cones and candies. That time, there were only 78 beneficiary children.

And her coming on Saturday, along with parents Andre and Sharon, elder brother Francois and South African compatriots Elaine Blignaut and Marina Furstenberg caught us by surprise, the children especially.

It was the first time that Santa Claus had visited them.

It was also on Saturday that the Tembari children received memorable Christmas presents from the supporters of The Center.

The South African expats came in full force with lots of goodies like toy car models for the boys, Barbie-like dolls for the girls and candies and lollies for everybody.

For the first time in the so-called seven-year history of The Center, a big Christmas Tree was put up by the visitors and Megan excitedly led in dressing it up.

And under the tree were gift-wrapped Christmas presents for everybody.

Megan, who attends the primary school in Lydenburg, South Africa, told me that she was happy to give away Christmas presents to the kids to cheer them up.

She and her family fly back home to South Africa for the Christmas holiday break this week.

Elaine, one of the executives at RBP Trading Ltd in Port Moresby, said the goodies were put together with some little help from their friends in Port Moresby.

Andre, a top executive at RBP Trading, is a generous regular donor.

While Megan was decorating the Tree, Papa Andre and Mama Sharon were looking at her with such enthusiasm only proud parents could have.

The reason could be that at young age, their girl is already becoming aware of poverty afflicting children in Papua New Guinea and her hands-on in social/charity work is gradually growing young roots at Tembari Center.

Truly, it was a great day for all the kids at The Center made possible by generous supporters like young girl Megan, Andre, Sharon, Francois, Elaine, Marina and their nameless friends.

This early, I say Merry Christmas to All!

(I am organizing a Christmas hamper party on Saturday, December 18, to further cheer up our 114 children. If you think you have some goodies – lollies, chocolates, candies, toys and all -- that you can part with to boost the hampers that we are going to distribute to the kids, please don’t hesitate to inform me. My contact phones are 3246-712 (office) and 722-31984 (cell phone.)

From left: Elaine Blignaut, Francois Potgieter, Sharon Potgieter, Megan Potgieter and Andre Potgieter shortly after arriving at the Tembari Center on Saturday with their surprise Christmas presents for the children.

Hayward Sagembo, TCC president, welcoming Andre Potgieter and company.


Volunteer parents helping in decorating the Tree.

Elaine Blignaut and Megan Potgieter posing under The Center’s welcome arch.

The visitors start decorating the Tree.

Tembari children intently looking at the Tree with Christmas presents under it.

Penny Sagembo, TCC founder, calling out names of children to receive their Christmas presents.

Megan (left) giving away Christmas presents to the Tembari kid while another Santa Claus assists her.

Megan, Mom Sharon and Dad Andre Potgieter appreciating the Tree they brought to The Center.

Tembari children proudly displaying their Christmas presents.

A girl displaying her Barbie-like doll.

Preschoolers displaying their Christmas presents of toy car models and dolls.

While everybody is busy receiving his/her Christmas presents, volunteer mom tend to the day’s special lunch of curry beef stew, beef-bone soup and boiled rice.

Megan posing with the Tembari Children after presenting their Christmas presents. – All pictures by ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ


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Tembari preschool graduates 28 children

Tembari preschoolers play with their Christmas toys inside their classroom on Saturday.

By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
A Friend of Tembari Children


THE Tembari Children Care (TCC) preschool held its school closing up presentation last Friday, in which 28 children graduated to move up as Grade 1 pupils.

It was an event witnessed by many parents from the settlement community with children at Tembari preschool facility which provides early education to about 60 children.

Of these, 45 are direct beneficiaries of The Center while the rest are beneficiaries of Digicel Foundation’s educational assistance to the settlement community.

In a remark highlighting the graduation, Penny Sagembo, co-founder of TCC, told the parents that they should strive hard to invest in the education of their children.

She stressed that “we are now living in a modern world where education of all children should be the main focus of every family”.

Penny said: “Papua New Guinea is modernizing and the cultural baggage that only the boys in the family should get education should finally be laid to rest.

“All girls in the family should attend school because like boys, they are also the future of PNG.”

Penny said Papua New Guinean women are gradually taking over a number of jobs at the work place, whether at the executive levels or at the ranks of labor.

“Education should be a must for all and Tembari is working hard for its beneficiary children to get the needed basic education despite our expected difficulties during school year 2011 in finding funds to pay for their school fees.”

This school year, there are 42 Tembari schoolchildren in 11 primary schools around Port Moresby whose fees have been paid for by WeCaRe! foundation.

By school year 2011, Tembari expects to have about 50 schoolchildren in the primary, which could cost up to K10,000, an amount TCC could ill-afford to pay.

WeCaRe! gets its grants from Digicel Foundation and this year, it received close to K300,000 to pay for school fees of orphans and abandoned children from all over the National Capital District.

Digicel Foundation aims to help this group of children by providing them opportunities to get an education.

The foundation is the charitable arm of cell phone provider Digicel PNG.

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Fr John Glynn and WeCare! now less-friendly to Tembari Children

By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
A Friend of Tembari Children


SADLY, the WeCaRe! foundation has become less-friendly to the 98 Tembari Children.

Retired priest Fr John Glynn, founder and patron of WeCaRe!, has cut off the K400 monthly grant that supports their daily feeding activities.

This money is being used for ingredients and materials needed for the daily, twice-a-day feeding of the Tembari children.

The Center could not just feed the kids with rice alone for dinner. Rice has to go with something else like tinned fish and veggies, cooking oil, onion, salt and others. And The Center is feeding 98 mouths everyday!

When our volunteer mothers bake bread for the children’s noon snacks, they need cooking oil, yeast sugar, baking powder, salt and others and all these need money.

The K400 monthly grant from WeCaRe! goes into this. Take this away and you can just imagine how the Tembari Children’s daily meals would look like.

Therefore, cutting the monthly support off would create a big hole in the monthly operating budget of The Center and will definitely upset its otherwise smooth day-to-day operations.

And the direct casualty of this unfortunate and misguided WeCaRe! decision, courtesy of its board that has been hostile to, and jealous of, Tembari Children Care (TCC), are the Tembari Children.

Fr John Glynn’s decision is hostile to our 98 beneficiary children.

In a recent letter, Fr John formally informed Penny Sagembo, co-founder of the Tembari Children Care (TCC) Inc, that the so-called interim board of WeCaRe! “has decided that the Tembari Group does not really need the small food subsidy of K400 a month that the Group has been receiving through you”.

But while the subsidy will continue for the months of November and December, it “will be discontinued in the New Year … all financial support from WeCaRe! will therefore cease as from January 1, 2010”.

Fr John reasoned out that with the support that The Center receives from various groups and individuals, the K400 monthly subsidy is a very small amount to miss, but a lot of money for some of the groups that WeCaRe! supports.

“In the case of Tembari, the board is impressed with the degree of support your Group receives from several sources,” Fr John told Penny.

On the other hand, he noted that the other groups “struggle to find resources they need to provide care for the children and other young women registered with them.

“They have no other sources of support other than WeCaRe! and the Community …”

The retired priest said that with the progress the Tembari Center has achieved, “you are to be congratulated on all you have achieved …”

If that is the case why then penalize/punish the Tembari Children by cutting off their monthly food assistance?

Is it The Center’s fault that the rest of the feeding programs don’t have the same support that we are getting?

Instead, the Center has to be rewarded for being able to improve over the past ten months the lot, particularly the diet, of these children whose number has grown from 78 (as of December 2009) to the present 98.

Because that is what a feeding program is all about – improving the day to day lives of the beneficiary children by boosting their diet.

From a hand-to-mouth affair of four feeding days a week with just kaukau, sliced bread and cordial drinks using WeCaRe! monthly grant of K400, The Center has now been able to feed the Tembari children twice a day, six days a week.

Penny began the Tembari feeding program in 2003, using her own money and that of his husband Hayward, now the TCC president.

For seven struggling years until last year when Digicel Foundation took notice of Tembari’s feeding program and recommended to WeCaRe! a monthly feeding grant, the Tembari children had not received any assistance – whether from the community or otherwise.

Suffering financially, Penny still pursued with the task of taking care of the unfortunate children in her community at ATS Oro Settlement. From 35 children, the number grew to 78 last December when I discovered them.

Now our kids number 98.

We have progressed this far because we tried working harder for the children. Using some imagination, the internet and my personal contacts, I tried my best to network with people and groups to find from among them a potential supporter or donor.

I never stopped marketing the future of the Tembari children to potential benefactors; I believed they would one day join the pool of Papua New Guinea’s source of future leaders.

Anybody who disputes this is crazy, much less heartless.

Many individuals and entities have found merit in what we do for the Tembari children that they have decided to support us to further the children’s welfare.

When WeCaRe! offered the K400 monthly subsidy early last year when there were only 78 beneficiary children, Fr John did not realize that such an amount could only feed the Tembari children four times a week – Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday – and could only buy kaukau, sliced bread and a 500ml bottle of cordial drink.

With 16 feeding days a month, each feeding session was actually supported only with K25-funding.

Spread this out to 78 children (those days) and each child would only benefit at the rate of 32 toea per feeding day. And what can you buy with K25 to feed 78 kids? What food can you have with just 30 toea?

Now we have 98 mouths to feed.

That’s why when I meet the Tembari children at a Christmas picnic party bank-rolled by Digicel Foundation and found out later the kind of food they were eating, I promised them I would try to find help – in terms of food, money and materials.

And so, from last January, assistance from individuals and entities began flowing into The Center.

Except for a handful of assistance, however, the rest that came to the Tembari children those days and even up to the present have remained unsustainable – just one-off donations.

But they helped a lot in alleviating the plight of the children.

This is one reason why I never stop talking to people for their possible support – financially and otherwise – because we have 98 kids to feed every day.

But thanks to our generous benefactors, the Tembari children have done well since January in terms of stable food supply and some generous funding assistance.

And for all this, Fr John Glynn has decided to penalize the children, by cutting off their food subsidy.

It is quite obvious that the good retired priest wants the Tembari Children Care (TCC) center to drop all its benefactors, supporters and donors so it could continue receiving the K400 feeding subsidy.

I suspect that he wants our benefactors, donors and supporters to instead channel their donations – money and foodstuff -- to his WeCaRe! and make the Tembari children come to him once a month for food assistance.

Make him the middleman, in short, for these funds.

In his letter, Fr John said the K400 could be used by the rest of the 16 other groups – these are feeding programs operating in rural areas – settlement and villages – outside of Port Moresby.

My question is: Would the K400 removed from the Tembari Children be flowed into the other groups?

I doubted it.

There are 16 feeding programs all over the national capital district – most of them in villages and settlements.

Of these, 11 are operated by mothers, including The Center. The other five are operated by foreigners, who actually go straight to Digicel Foundation for funding assistance as they do not want Fr John Glynn to meddle with their operations.

On the other hand, the mother-operated soup kitchens are solely dependent on WeCaRe! for their respective feeding money. In short they are beholden to the priest.

But the 10 soup kitchens have been complaining – just like what Penny Sagembo has been into – about how unrealistic the K400 monthly grant has become against the soaring prices of foodstuff in the city.

However, Fr John has insisted that is the only money for them: whether they have five kids in their group, or 100, the K400 monthly grant will never increase. So they have to live with it.

So, where would the K400 taken away from Tembari children go?

And he also has found some pleasure (and may be power) in consistently dangling the K400 feeding assistance to these mothers – if they won’t come to the monthly meeting to explain how they were doing with the money, they won’t receive the next one.

Penny had been subjected to this kind of treatment. When she failed to attend one meeting last month, Fr John cut the K400 off for this particular month.

Learning about this, I immediately howled my protest to Marina Van der Vlies, CEO of Digicel Foundation.

I explained to her that the Tembari children had become a victim of politics being played within the WeCaRe! board comprising church members from Anglican, United, Catholic and so on.

And the Anglican church, for that matter, has an axe to grind against the Tembari children center because it claimed it was duplicating its feeding program (Tembari belongs to Anglican church) at ATS Oro Settlement and did not want it to succeed.

However, the Anglican church’s feeding program failed to take off when it attempted to operate one at ATS Oro settlement due to inside fighting among its officers over money.

In short, it has become fly-by-night ops to the chagrin of the community that wanted this services from their church badly.

A day after my protest, the K400 for that particular month was immediately restored.

The Digicel Foundation is the source of WeCaRe! money, and for this year, it received a grant of close to K300,000 to help educate the many underprivileged around Port Moresby.

Fr John said he was paying for the school fees of hundreds of school children, thus the huge grant from Digicel Foundation.

Thanks to Digicel Foundation, 42 Tembari school children benefited from this. By next year, their number would grow to about 50.

However, with this spat between The Center and WeCaRe! over the feeding grant, it is no surprise if Fr John Glynn rejects the Tembari children’s school fee assistance request for next year.

Marina should watch this out closely, because it would be a clear negation of Digicel Foundation’s self-mandated task to help provide education to the underprivileged in the country.

In his earlier email to me, Fr John Glynn said that feeding programs should not take children more than they can feed and that each should live with the K400 it receives every month.

The retired priest believed that the rest of the unfortunate children who would not be accommodated by these feeding groups are responsibilities of the community where they live.

The truth is, the members of the community itself are financially hard-up to be able to look after these kids, much less feed their own.

That’s why there are more street children nowadays roaming around ATS Oro Settlement.

In closing his letter, Fr John Glynn said in his patronizing air: We would like very much to discuss how we can continue to support the work you are doing …”

To Fr John Glynn, I say: Please restore that grant … that’s the least you can do to help enhance the Tembari children’s feeding program, which you said has become successful.

To carry out that board decision will simply show the hypocrisy worn by each of the board members.


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Fr John Glynn and WeCare! now less-friendly to Tembari Children

Hayward Sagembo (right) president and co-founder of Tembari Children Care (TCC) Inc, and wife Penny, TCC co-founder, express frustrations on Saturday over the loss of K400 monthly grant from WeCaRe!, saying it was unfair to do so to a successful feeding program like that of TCC’s. (More pictures after this article).

By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
A Friend of Tembari Children


SADLY, the WeCaRe! foundation has become less-friendly to the 98 Tembari Children.

Retired priest Fr John Glynn, founder and patron of WeCaRe!, has cut off the K400 monthly grant that supports their daily feeding activities.

This money is being used for ingredients and materials needed for the daily, twice-a-day feeding of the Tembari children.

The Center could not just feed the kids with rice alone for dinner. Rice has to go with something else like tinned fish and veggies, cooking oil, onion, salt and others. And The Center is feeding 98 mouths everyday!

When our volunteer mothers bake bread for the children’s noon snacks, they need cooking oil, yeast sugar, baking powder, salt and others and all these need money.

The K400 monthly grant from WeCaRe! goes into this. Take this away and you can just imagine how the Tembari Children’s daily meals would look like.

Therefore, cutting the monthly support off would create a big hole in the monthly operating budget of The Center and will definitely upset its otherwise smooth day-to-day operations.

And the direct casualty of this unfortunate and misguided WeCaRe! decision, courtesy of its board that has been hostile to, and jealous of, Tembari Children Care (TCC), are the Tembari Children.

Fr John Glynn’s decision is hostile to our 98 beneficiary children.

In a recent letter, Fr John formally informed Penny Sagembo, co-founder of the Tembari Children Care (TCC) Inc, that the so-called interim board of WeCaRe! “has decided that the Tembari Group does not really need the small food subsidy of K400 a month that the Group has been receiving through you”.

But while the subsidy will continue for the months of November and December, it “will be discontinued in the New Year … all financial support from WeCaRe! will therefore cease as from January 1, 2010”.

Fr John reasoned out that with the support that The Center receives from various groups and individuals, the K400 monthly subsidy is a very small amount to miss, but a lot of money for some of the groups that WeCaRe! supports.

“In the case of Tembari, the board is impressed with the degree of support your Group receives from several sources,” Fr John told Penny.

On the other hand, he noted that the other groups “struggle to find resources they need to provide care for the children and other young women registered with them.

“They have no other sources of support other than WeCaRe! and the Community …”

The retired priest said that with the progress the Tembari Center has achieved, “you are to be congratulated on all you have achieved …”

If that is the case why then penalize/punish the Tembari Children by cutting off their monthly food assistance?

Is it The Center’s fault that the rest of the feeding programs don’t have the same support that we are getting?

Instead, the Center has to be rewarded for being able to improve over the past ten months the lot, particularly the diet, of these children whose number has grown from 78 (as of December 2009) to the present 98.

Because that is what a feeding program is all about – improving the day to day lives of the beneficiary children by boosting their diet.

From a hand-to-mouth affair of four feeding days a week with just kaukau, sliced bread and cordial drinks using WeCaRe! monthly grant of K400, The Center has now been able to feed the Tembari children twice a day, six days a week.

Penny began the Tembari feeding program in 2003, using her own money and that of his husband Hayward, now the TCC president.

For seven struggling years until last year when Digicel Foundation took notice of Tembari’s feeding program and recommended to WeCaRe! a monthly feeding grant, the Tembari children had not received any assistance – whether from the community or otherwise.

Suffering financially, Penny still pursued with the task of taking care of the unfortunate children in her community at ATS Oro Settlement. From 35 children, the number grew to 78 last December when I discovered them.

Now our kids number 98.

We have progressed this far because we tried working harder for the children. Using some imagination, the internet and my personal contacts, I tried my best to network with people and groups to find from among them a potential supporter or donor.

I never stopped marketing the future of the Tembari children to potential benefactors; I believed they would one day join the pool of Papua New Guinea’s source of future leaders.

Anybody who disputes this is crazy, much less heartless.

Many individuals and entities have found merit in what we do for the Tembari children that they have decided to support us to further the children’s welfare.

When WeCaRe! offered the K400 monthly subsidy early last year when there were only 78 beneficiary children, Fr John did not realize that such an amount could only feed the Tembari children four times a week – Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday – and could only buy kaukau, sliced bread and a 500ml bottle of cordial drink.

With 16 feeding days a month, each feeding session was actually supported only with K25-funding.

Spread this out to 78 children (those days) and each child would only benefit at the rate of 32 toea per feeding day. And what can you buy with K25 to feed 78 kids? What food can you have with just 30 toea?

Now we have 98 mouths to feed.

That’s why when I meet the Tembari children at a Christmas picnic party bank-rolled by Digicel Foundation and found out later the kind of food they were eating, I promised them I would try to find help – in terms of food, money and materials.

And so, from last January, assistance from individuals and entities began flowing into The Center.

Except for a handful of assistance, however, the rest that came to the Tembari children those days and even up to the present have remained unsustainable – just one-off donations.

But they helped a lot in alleviating the plight of the children.

This is one reason why I never stop talking to people for their possible support – financially and otherwise – because we have 98 kids to feed every day.

But thanks to our generous benefactors, the Tembari children have done well since January in terms of stable food supply and some generous funding assistance.

And for all this, Fr John Glynn has decided to penalize the children, by cutting off their food subsidy.

It is quite obvious that the good retired priest wants the Tembari Children Care (TCC) center to drop all its benefactors, supporters and donors so it could continue receiving the K400 feeding subsidy.

I suspect that he wants our benefactors, donors and supporters to instead channel their donations – money and foodstuff -- to his WeCaRe! and make the Tembari children come to him once a month for food assistance.

Make him the middleman, in short, for these funds.

In his letter, Fr John said the K400 could be used by the rest of the 16 other groups – these are feeding programs operating in rural areas – settlement and villages – outside of Port Moresby.

My question is: Would the K400 removed from the Tembari Children be flowed into the other groups?

I doubt it.

There are 16 feeding programs all over the national capital district – most of them in villages and settlements.

Of these, 11 are operated by mothers, including The Center. The other five are operated by foreigners, who actually go straight to Digicel Foundation for funding assistance as they do not want Fr John Glynn to meddle with their operations.

On the other hand, the mother-operated soup kitchens are solely dependent on WeCaRe! for their respective feeding money. In short they are beholden to the priest.

But the 10 soup kitchens have been complaining – just like what Penny Sagembo has been into – about how unrealistic the K400 monthly grant has become against the soaring prices of foodstuff in the city.

However, Fr John has insisted that is the only money for them: whether they have five kids in their group, or 100, the K400 monthly grant will never increase. So they have to live with it.

So, where would the K400 taken away from Tembari children go?

And he also has found some pleasure (and may be power) in consistently dangling the K400 feeding assistance to these mothers – if they won’t come to the monthly meeting to explain how they were doing with the money, they won’t receive the next one.

Penny had been subjected to this kind of treatment. When she failed to attend one meeting last month, Fr John cut the K400 off for this particular month.

Learning about this, I immediately howled my protest to Marina Van der Vlies, CEO of Digicel Foundation.

I explained to her that the Tembari children had become a victim of politics being played within the WeCaRe! board comprising church members from Anglican, United, Catholic and so on.

And the Anglican church, for that matter, has an axe to grind against the Tembari children center because it claimed it was duplicating its feeding program (Tembari belongs to Anglican church) at ATS Oro Settlement and did not want it to succeed.

However, the Anglican church’s feeding program failed to take off when it attempted to operate one at ATS Oro settlement due to inside fighting among its officers over money.

In short, it has become fly-by-night ops to the chagrin of the community that wanted this services from their church badly.

A day after my protest, the K400 for that particular month was immediately restored.

The Digicel Foundation is the source of WeCaRe! money, and for this year, it received a grant of close to K300,000 to help educate the many underprivileged around Port Moresby.

Fr John said he was paying for the school fees of hundreds of school children, thus the huge grant from Digicel Foundation.

Thanks to Digicel Foundation, 42 Tembari school children benefited from this. By next year, their number would grow to about 50.

However, with this spat between The Center and WeCaRe! over the feeding grant, it is no surprise if Fr John Glynn rejects the Tembari children’s school fee assistance request for next year.

Marina should watch this out closely, because it would be a clear negation of Digicel Foundation’s self-mandated task to help provide education to the underprivileged in the country.

In his earlier email to me, Fr John Glynn said that feeding programs should not take children more than they can feed and that each should live with the K400 it receives every month.

The retired priest believed that the rest of the unfortunate children who would not be accommodated by these feeding groups are responsibilities of the community where they live.

The truth is, the members of the community itself are financially hard-up to be able to look after these kids, much less feed their own.

That’s why there are more street children nowadays roaming around ATS Oro Settlement.

In closing his letter, Fr John Glynn said in his patronizing air: We would like very much to discuss how we can continue to support the work you are doing …”

To Fr John Glynn, I say: Please restore that grant … that’s the least you can do to help enhance the Tembari children’s feeding program, which you said has become successful.

To carry out that board decision will simply show the hypocrisy worn by each of your board members.


Tembari boys browse their picture books while waiting for lunch to be served on Saturday.

Children sipping their soup prior to being serve their special lunch of spiced minced beef on Saturday.

A preschooler playing alone inside her classroom.

Tembari preschoolers inside their classroom while waiting for lunch to be served.

Cups of beef bone soup waiting to be served to the children.

Two kids sip their piping hot soup.

Preschoolers having lunch inside their classroom.

Kids having lunch of rice, spiced mince beef and cordial drink.

Melanie, 8, chats with her buddy while waiting for lunch to be served on Saturday.

Volunteer mothers tending to pots soup and spiced minced beef. Rice has been just cooked and is set aside.

Spicy minced beef dish cooking – the main dish of the week, which has been sponsored by two individuals who chipped in K200 each to cover ingredients and others items. Lunch was served to 97 children on Saturday, as one kid was unable to come for feeding.

Thirsty kids crowd over a water cooler. Safe drinking water has become a rare commodity at the settlement that many, including Tembari children, have rarely drunk water after meals. Water was donated by Aqua Five and The Water Company.

A boy tries to operate the tap of the water cooler and serve ice water to his colleagues.

Boys chat to one another to kill time while waiting for lunch to be served.

The hollow block dirty stove after cooking for the day is done. (All pictures by ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ)

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Car of cheers and hope

Two girls struggle to carry a box of cordial drinks donated by Pacific Industries. (More pictures after story).


By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
A Friend of Tembari Children

AT MID-MORNING every Saturday, whenever I arrived at The Center, the Tembari Children would always spring into excitement.

They would welcome me with their excited “good morning, Fredo …” greetings as I came out of my car, eagerly waiting for the other doors to open.

They knew that inside the car would be lots of things that would boil down to one thing: food, food and food.

My coming has been an assurance that there would always be food for them. And I wish this happens without fail.

And they would excitedly haul them off to our store room at The Center.

This has been the scene every Saturday morning and I tried my best not to change this, or better still, to improve on this, by seeing to it that there’s always something for the children to take away from the car as soon as I arrived.

True. Over the past 10 months, I had been, and still I do, bringing them foodstuff --- rice, milk, drinking water, other food stuff and materials for my Saturday cooking – all courtesy of generous supporters and benefactors.

And such frenzy of our children trying to outdo one another in doing this weekly task has not been left unnoticed by the members of the community.

Whether or not they are hostile to The Center because of the progress it has achieved over the last 10 months in improving the welfare of our 98 children, I just couldn’t care.

There are still many from the settlement that have remained envious of the progress The Center has achieved over time; they are still trying to malign us by spreading gossips around the community that we are just kidding with our feeding program.

And that we are just using the Tembari kids to make money out of funding grants or donations.

But their wish that we fail in our efforts to better the lives of the Tembari Children never happened. And now they wanted to join us for our services.

The Center is getting strong every time, thanks to the benefactors and supporters who believe that we are doing it right for our wards.

It was just plain sour grapes. Some of them tried to start their own feeding scheme in the hope that they could make money from it. But they failed to take off in the first place.

One reason was that they never got support. One reason for this was that they were not credible. In fact, they turned out to be village con men and the whole community knew about it.

Now they knew who was kidding, or who was trying to scheme using the children.

So whenever I drove off to the village, with all those goodies in my car that the Tembari children had been anticipating to receive, I often wondered if somebody would just scheme their way to prevent me from arriving at The Center at the other end of the settlement.

Like blocking my car on my way to The Center. It could always happen, what with this unlikely place such as the ATS Oro settlement

It’s always a scary thought. But my Lord has always been with me.

He knows that my coming to The Center had always brought new hopes for the Tembari Children.

This is not surprising. I’m working hard for them. And our benefactors are always there, willing to help.


Young boy shoulders a block of 20kg frozen fish donated by High Energy Co, a deep-sea fishing operator in Papua New Guinea.

Kids trying to remove containers of purified water from Aqua Five and The Water Company.

Kids crowd at the back of the car for goodies to carry.

A girl (right) tries to find a space at the back of the car so she could get something to carry.

Children at the back of the car removing some goodies. (Pictures by ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ)


Email the writer: alfredophernandez@thenational.com.pg
jarahdz500@online.net.pg
freddiephernandez@yahoo.com

An appeal: Christmas goodies for Tembari Children

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 98 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 18, 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 18, 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 98 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 writer: alfredophernandez@thenational.com.pg
jarahdz500@online.net.pg
freddiephernandez@yahoo.com.pg

150 kids dined at The Center on Thursday

Three pots cooking at the same time. One is boiling ham-masala soup, another is for rice and the third is for curry corned beef. (More pictures after the story.)

By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
A Friend of Tembari Children

LAST THURSDAY, about 150 children came to The Center for dinner food, out of the usual 98 who are the registered beneficiaries of the Tembari Children’s Care (TCC) day care/orphanage facility.

The excess diners were village children who must have discovered there was no food at home for the night, and The Center was there only hope for something to eat – something that could last them over night.

What added to the bizarre situation was that the skies opened up and dumped all the rains it could that afternoon, and again The Center had become their shelter from the downpour.

I immediately considered this as a symbolism of what we do for the unfortunate kids of ATS Oro Settlement at 7-Mile, outside of Port Moresby.

That Thursday afternoon, I received a call from one of the volunteers in charge of cooking meals at The Center alerting me to the situation – meaning, there were 150 kids to feed and the food budget for that day would be shot.

Everyday, we normally cook 10kg of rice plus lots of tinned fish enough to cover the dinner meal of our wards. The extra diners represented half of our registered beneficiary children.
“Do we drive them away …?” I was asked, trying to imagine how mad the rain was belting down that moment.

And beside we don’t have enough space for everybody at The Center to keep them away from getting wet, so it was a problem.

But the additional food that we have to spare was the one that concerned us all.

“No … let them stay for the food … just use another 5kg of rice and some tinned fish so everybody could eat,” I told the volunteer who works as the caretaker of the facility.

So, yesterday during my Saturday cooking at The Center in which I cooked a carton of corned beef and ham-masala soup, I asked the volunteer mothers about last Thursday afternoon’s incident.

“Fredo …They just came here (The Center) from all over the village and wanted to eat with our children …” a mother whom I call Kairuku -- although that’s not her name but having come from that village with the same name, I decided to call her that -- told me.

“Maybe they had no food in the house that night, so they came over here because they knew we cook for our own children everyday … maybe their parents had asked them to drop by here and have some food …”

“Okay … that’s settled for now …” I said.

Then I asked: “How do we avoid the same situation from happening?” I asked, referring to the sudden surge of village children to The Center.

“No, we can’t … they just pop up here and it would be quite heartless for us to do that …” butted in Hayward, the president of TCC.

But he said he will see to it that the caretaker at The Center would try to screen immediately all the kids showing up for dinner. Those who don’t belong could be advised to go home instead, before they could settle themselves at the dining tables.

You see, dear readers, we feed our children twice a day – something of a feat for a fledgling soup kitchen like the Tembari day care and orphanage facility.

At noon, our mothers bake bread early in the day for our preschoolers who finish classes by noon. The freshly baked bread is their usual noontime snacks.

Then, by 3pm our mothers begin cooking dinner meal of rice and tinned fish for everybody – our 45 preschoolers and 42 other kids attending the primary schools at 11 schools around Port Moresby.

About this time, our elementary children start coming home to The Center for their early dinner with our preschoolers.

And such an event at The Center is something never missed by village children who could go hungry at home by the time nightfall comes, especially when their parents are unable to bring food to the table for dinner.

In fact, this is the usual “talk of the town”, so to speak, at ATS Oro Settlement

And everything boils down to the continuing support we receive from our kindhearted benefactors, supporters and donors.

For this, I personally owe all of you a big ONE.

ontainers of donated purified water.

Melanie, one of the Tembari kids, helping out to cook the soup.

Moms cooking the dish for Saturday’s especial lunch.

Preschool kids playing inside the classroom while waiting for lunch.

Kids playing marbles while waiting for lunch.

Kids kill time chatting while waiting for lunch.

Kids are alive with their hands raised.

Melanie (center) and the other girls are getting hungry now.

Children in line wait to have their hands washed before lunch.

The ham-masala soup is now boiling to the brim.

Two volunteer men build a kitchen table.

Volunteer moms straining flour to remove bugs and weevils.

At last, lunch is cooked and moms prepare to serve it to the hungry children.

Volunteer mom shaping bread for baking.

volunteer mom removes freshly baked bread from the oven.

And she’s showing it off for all the world to see…

Volunteer mom tends to a cooking bread pudding.

Freshly steamed bread pudding made of biscuit flour.

Kids finally eat their special Saturday lunch of curry corned beef, ham-masala soup and cordial drink.

A group of kids having lunch.

Wagi, The Center caretaker (right) eats with the children.

Preschool kids eat their lunch inside their classroom.

A long line of kids waiting for their cordial drinks.

Three hollow block dirty stoves .. what is left after cooking is done. – All pictures by ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ

Email the writer: alfredophernandez@thenational.com.pg
jarahdz500@online.net.pg
freddiephernandez@yahoo.com