The need for a new preschool classroom

Volunteer moms cooking chicken dish on Saturday which was prepared by APH. (More pictures after story).


By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
A Friend of Tembari Children

WITH THE onset of the wet season in Papua New Guinea, the need for the Tembari Children Center (TCC) to build the third classroom for the new members of its preschool program has become more urgent and a pressing issue for us to deal with.

Yesterday during the resumption of my special Saturday lunch program in which I cooked a special meal for our beneficiary children, we had to rush the serving of the meal – chicken wing stew, rice, soup and cordial drink – because it was starting to rain.

Lunch, or whatever meal scheduled for the day, is usually served outside the classroom where our young beneficiary children sit on the dining table and enjoy the breeze while waiting for the food to cook and served.

Yesterday, we hurriedly evacuated them to the two small classrooms to shelter them from the threatening rain. Luckily, it was just a drizzle and did not last long.

The same scenario played last school year when the skies opened up while classes were going on.

The third batch of more than 20 preschoolers held its class in the open – under the mango tree because the two available classrooms were occupied by two other classes.

The outdoor class had to be sent home for the day because we did not have space to shelter them from the rain.

This school year which starts on Monday, February 7, we expect to see at least 120 preschoolers under our program, with each of our three volunteer teachers taking an average of 40 young learners.

The normal size for a class is between 20 and 25 pupils, thus making the delivery of instruction effective and convenient for the teacher as well.
But this year, each of our three volunteer teachers would be handling 40 pupils each – a number which could be a problem to deal with.

Of the 120 preschoolers, 60 new kids would be joining the program for the first time.

Of this number, 40 pupils have parents – a mother and a father who are able to support them. They are joining the Tembari preschool program because Tembari Children’s Care (TCC) center is the only one operating a preschool facility at the ATS Oro Settlement at 7-Mile, outside of Port Moresby.

The other 20 first time preschoolers are orphans and abandoned children who are our target beneficiaries.

TCC is basically a day care and orphanage facility catering for the less-fortunate children at ATS Oro Settlement.

Besides, providing early education to interested community children other than the Tembari kids is part of our service, being a community-based organization (CBO) duly registered with Investment Promotion Authority (IPA).

LAST DECEMBER, I started a fundraising drive to help us build a multi-purpose hall that would include a classroom of 9m x 4m in size for the third batch of our preschool children.

The structure, which measures 15m long and 4m wide, would also provide a space for an office (3m x 4m) and a dirty kitchen of the same size. It will have concrete floor and roofed with GI sheets.

Initial estimate showed that it would cost at least K50,000 to build this multi-purpose hall.

The AP Engineering Ltd of Kokopo, East New Britain, was first to respond to my appeal by donating a cheque for K7,000.

Engineer Ariel Parro, APEL managing director, has assured me that he would continue supporting this project. He promised to help us prepare the basic design for the building.

For those who would like to support this project, here’s an opportunity to do so: You can contribute the needed materials like roofing sheets, cement, bricks, timber materials and others.

Initially, the structure would require 18 roofing sheets 2.7m long and another set of 18 sheets 3.6m long; ridge cap 8 length x 2.8m.

If you wish to donate cash, please write the cheque in the name of Tembari Children’s Care (TCC).

Also, we have an account with Bank South Pacific through which you can credit your donation to bank account number 1001481651, Waigani Branch, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.

I hope this appeal would reach kind-hearted individuals and community-oriented business houses and institutions.

It is through your support and theirs that the Tembari Children’s Care (TCC) is able to make the lives of a group of less-fortunate children a little better by providing them daily meals and basic education.

I would be willing to discuss with you ideas that would help make our preschool classroom project a reality.

Moms busy themselves with three dishes: chicken wings stew, special masala-egg-beef bone-soup and rice.

Two young volunteers pounding Magi cubes before they go into the chicken wing dish.

Tembari children displaying their picture books which they browse inside the classroom.

Children enjoying their picture books.

Tembari children discussing something about the picture books they were browsing.

olunteer mom assisting the kids in washing hands while the soup is seen steaming in the background.

A little boy being helped cleanse his hands.

Bowls of lunch food now ready for serving to the kids.

Children having their soup before the main course is served.

Children enjoying their steaming hot soup.

A kid is caught by camera while sipping her soup.

Kids having lunch inside their classroom while it was drizzling outside.

A toddler shyly hides her face from the camera. An orphan, she’s one of the youngest beneficiaries of Tembari center. (All pictures by ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ, January 29, 2011)

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Tembari kids need to be busy during free hours

Penny Sage-embo, co-founder and secretary of the Tembari Children Center (TCC) gives the Tembari children a pep talk on discipline on Saturday after the feeding program. – Picture by ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ



By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
A Friend of Tembari Children

PENNY Sage-embo, co-founder and secretary of the Tembari Children’s Care (TCC), has raised a valid concern:

Between feeding, for which we have been quite successful to date, and providing our beneficiary children preschool and elementary/primary education, for which we have also been successful, we have nothing more to speak of as far as enhancing their learning process is concerned.

She told me: After feeding and after the morning-only preschool classes were done, our kids have nothing more to do in their free time, especially the preschoolers, who prepare to stay at the center till afternoon while waiting for early dinner at 4pm before they go home to their respective guardians/foster parents for the night.

All they do is run around The Center’s playground and sometimes spilling over into the village road where PMVs are running like mad-dogs. That is after they tired out browsing old and worn-out picture books that were donated to The Center long ago.

While playing under the sun makes them sweat and give them the needed physical exercise, all this would not be enough to make them rounded individuals, Penny said.

“So, what can we do about this?” I asked her out of my curiosity.

She said: I would like you to find a donor who could provide us a small generator and a video player and a modestly-sized TV screen.

With all this—power and audio-visual facilities – the children could watch basic children’s education video programs which are now a common teaching aids in most children’s learning center.

“Such educational aids would enhance their awareness of the surroundings and at the same time help in instilling discipline among them,” Penny said.

This would keep the children busy indoor watching this video shows, something they would be experiencing for the first time in their lives.

Secondly, Penny has found individuals with teaching skills to help in these extra-curricular activities to carry out daily afternoon activities designed to acquaint preschoolers with new knowledge that only video programs could effectively provide.

Exposures to new things dished out by children’s video programming would greatly compliment the preschool instructions they received every from Monday to Friday.

Why the generator, you may ask.

Well, the Tembari Center is not yet connected to the village’s power grid. The last power line post along the road leading to the day care facility stopped some 400 meters away.

The PNG Power Ltd since last year has been looking for funds to buy the materials needed to extend the power line grid up to where Tembari Center is located at ATS Oro Settlement.

And we cannot wait any longer for PNG Power to make good its promise to provide us electricity.

That’s why we need to acquire a medium size gen-set that could run a computer set, light a bulb or two and operate a video player and a TV monitor. And of course, children’s programming video.

The PC would help Penny prepare the long-over due profiling of our beneficiary children. Actually, they have been stored in a laptop but the battery power of the one Penny uses cannot last long, thus preventing her to work on the profiles into the night.

These items are too costly for us to acquire since the funds available to us have been set aside to support our daily operations at The Center.

For this, I would like to appeal to my readers: If you are able enough to donate to Tembari children a medium-sized gen-set and a set of video player and TV monitor, please let me know.

You have a big opportunity to be a part in enhancing the learning process of the Tembari Children. And this opportunity is now here.

Call me on 3246-712 (my landline at The National newspaper) and on 722-31984.

It’s the best that we can do for now to help shape the future of the Tembari Children.

Email the blogger: alfredophernandez@thenational.com.pg
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The cost of being transparent: Tembari lost a supporter

Volunteer moms and children crowding themselves out at the back of the car to collect cartons of tinned fish donated by RD Tuna and other goodies. – Picture by ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ


By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
A Friend of Tembari Children

WHEN I launched www.tembari.blogspot in May 2010 as my venue for updating our benefactors, supporters, donors and interested parties on developments concerning our beneficiary children, I made it a point to be transparent with the assistance we received, whether it was money, foodstuff, materials and assistance.

That’s why I disclosed in my blogs funding and food assistance as they came.

By the end of the year, we lost a vital supporter, costing us at a monthly grant of K400 in food assistance and at least K9,450 in school fees for school year 2011.

Until now, I am still trying to seek potential sponsors who would be willing to pay the school fees of our 62 schoolchildren in some 12 schools across Port Moresby. And to think that the school year is to start on Monday, February 7, it gives us a lot of pressure.

Aware of funding assistance that the Tembari Children’s Care (TCC) was receiving from a host of individuals, business houses and foundations, WeCaRe!, a foundation, took the mistaken notion that The Center was doing alright and that it no longer deserved its assistance.

With this, ex-Irish priest John Glynn, founder and operator of WeCaRe! just simply cut his funding assistance towards Tembari. (One gratifying public comment he made however, was that the Tembari Center has progressed so well ahead of its counterparts in the country in just one year because of the generous assistance it received.)

Or maybe, we could have also lost more potential assistance from among those who have read my blogs last year numbering to some 9,500 because they decided to change heart about helping us, believing that we were doing well. (At the time of this writing, exactly 9,600 have already visited this blog site’s pages.)

I realized this later when one vital donor of foodstuff emailed me, saying that he read on www.tembari.blogspot.com that we had many supporters and that we were doing alright now, could he stop his regular foodstuff donation?

I explained to him the situation to convince him that it would put our daily feeding program in disarray if he quit his monthly assistance.

I should disabuse the minds of people who read our little success story: While it was true that we received such help, it was not sustainable.

Meaning, our operation was similar to what we call “hand-to-mouth existence”. I have to look for potential donors everyday to sustain the daily operations of our day care and orphanage facility.

Except for a handful of generous parties who continuously sent out assistance, the rest that we got were just one-off. But it doesn’t mean that we don’t appreciate the help. The fact is we are very grateful because it enables us to serve our beneficiary children effectively.

One reason I have to continuously seek out help from everybody, from every business houses that I came to think of and from friends whom I felt would find helping the Tembari children a rare opportunity.

Believing that it was important to be transparent with everybody who read my accounts of the Tembari children’s activities, I made it a point to specify individually on this blogsite the entities and persons who came to help us.

To the readers, the listing of our donors was impressive, as it included the biggest business houses in PNG.

But this proved to be costly on Tembari children’s part.

One basic reason was that, those who were planning to help the children would otherwise drop the idea, thinking that they were doing well, what with the long list of their benefactors.

One long-time Filipino expat in Port Moresby has suggested that I should shut my mouth regarding the amount of help that the Tembari children are getting. I am inclined to believe the suggestion, knowing that this person runs one of the biggest charity foundations in Papua New Guinea.

Just keep everybody guessing on the status of our operations. Remember, our children are supposed to be struggling and in dire poverty -- a situation that would make them more attractive to help.

As they say in warfare, let the enemy guess as to your logistics and the number of your troops. This way, they would find it hard to figure out how to defeat you.

The same is true with assistance. When donors know you are hard up, they will come. Once they learned that you are now doing well, they would disappear.

So what to do?

We wanted to be honest with our supporters and benefactors and the general public by being open with them.

But when the welfare of our children is being jeopardized by transparency, the best practice is to keep our donors guessing. This way help would keep on coming.

Is this acceptable?

I honestly feel that Tembari has succeeded in making positive impact on the lives of its beneficiary children, thanks to the continuous help that The Center is receiving from various parties.

It is one happy development that deserves to be sustained and supported by the general public, and specifically by our existing donors, and hopefully by potential supporters.

As they say, good performance must always be rewarded.

I believed the Tembari Children’s Care performed 2010 well that its feeding and educational program for some 110 unfortunate children won success.

Honestly, we worked hard to achieve this.

This happy occasion should continue. This is the only way to change the lives of these unfortunate children for the better and make them useful citizens in the future.

Cutting assistance while good things are just starting to show on the horizon is like nipping a potentially beautiful flower in its bud.

But whatever things I say in this piece, all would simply boil down to one thing: The future of the Tembari children will always remain in the hands of our benefactors, supporters and donors.

If they disappear, the future of these kids would simply fall apart as it disappears into nothingness.

Could we allow this to happen?


Email the blogger: alfredophernandez@thenational.com.pg
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freddiephernandez@yahoo.com

60 new kids join Tembari’s preschool program; rainy days are here

Hayward Sagembo, president of Tembari Children Care (TCC) Inc, pointing to a space where the proposed classroom-multi-purpose hall will rise. (More pictures after story.

By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
A Friend of Tembari Children

THIS school year, 60 children from the settlement are joining Tembari Children Care preschool program.

Of this, 20 are our target beneficiaries. Meaning, they are orphans and abandoned whom we are mandated to help.

Each of the rest of 40 kids has a complete set of parents who are able enough to provide for their basic needs.

These 40 will come to The Center for preschool program, which is also part of the facility’s services to the community at ATS Oro Settlement at 7 Mile outside of Port Moresby as a community-based organization (CBO).

But still, these 40 new kids would share with the noon snacks that we provide to our beneficiary children.

Simply said, we would have to include them in our Monday-to-Friday feeding program budget because we can’t turn them away while our own kids enjoy their noon break snacks.

To us with meager funds, these 40 kids are additional mouths to feed.

Anyway … the new entrants bring to at least 100 the number of preschool children to be serviced by The Center this year.

This doesn’t include the 62 other children who are now in the elementary and primary school levels.

Last year, our preschool program graduated 20 children and they move up to the elementary level as Grade 1’s.

However, all of our 62 schoolchildren are not yet sure to enroll this year.

We don’t have the money and we have not yet found a sponsor who would be able to pay for their school fees amounting to K9,450.

The WeCaRe! foundation, who last year paid for their school fees (40 schoolchildren), simply dropped them from its school fee assistance program this year.

Reason: Ex-Irish priest John Glynn, the foundation owner-operator, has maintained the Tembari Children no longer deserve his support as they are getting lots of money from corporate donors and individuals.

My reaction: Extremely false ... it is something he has to assert on to justify his sacking of the Tembari kids.

Each year, Digicel Foundation gives Glynn lots of money (last year: K270,000) to help unfortunate kids like those at Tembari pay for their school fees and certain charity endeavors.

I would say depriving a group of unfortunate children like the Tembari kids of much needed help and rejecting them as helpless children per se is one of John Glynn’s biggest failures as head of a foundation and as a religious man.

I read somewhere that our Lord Jesus said: “If you rejected these children, you have also rejected me.” Well, it sounded something like that, but I believe it’s very close.

Anyway, I am still scouting around for a potential school fee donor or donors on behalf of 62 kids of Tembari.

Any taker?

Right now, we are experiencing a population explosion at The Center.

We are looking at 160 beneficiary children, who are sure to put a big stress on our meager resources, especially food supply. The fact is that as of December 2010, we only had in our roster 114 kids.

And last year, we only had about 50 preschoolers, who were grouped into three classes. One class had 15 children, while another had 20.

I can see an overcrowding in the classroom when the preschool classes open next month.

With close to 100 preschoolers now in our roster, two classes would have at least 35 children, who will be assigned a volunteer teacher.

The third class would have 30, also under a volunteer teacher.

Two classes will hold daily sessions inside classrooms while the third batch will be holding theirs under the proverbial mango tree.

Since wet days have begun, the outdoor class would always have problem every time it rains.

Last year, the outdoor class kids had to be sent home every time it rained because The Center could not shelter them from the downpour.

So this year, it would be a problem again and it has to be dealt with.

That’s why we are about to start building a multi-purpose structure of light materials that would house the third classroom.

The new one-floor building measures 15 meters by 4 meters with concrete floor and iron sheet roofing. It is also designed to house a small office of 3x4 meter and a dirty kitchen of the same area.

The structure would at least cost K50,000 to build.

Already, a Kokopo, East New Britain-based engineering company, AP Engineering Ltd, has donated K7,000 to kick-off the project.

Its managing director, Engineer Ariel Parro, would be providing the basic structural design of the classroom project.

Now, here’s a personal appeal:

I’m appealing to corporate groups, institutions and individuals for support in this preschool classroom project.

It’s only through you that the Tembari children would be able to advance in their quest for preschool education.

It is only through you that a modest classroom for at least 30 preschool kids would be built at The Center. Their days of holding daily class under the tree should now end.

And the rainy days have begun.

Just imagine them scampering for shelter whenever it rained while they were doing their class work.

If you think you are able to support this project, please don’t hesitate to let me know.

Help us raise K50,000 – all for the Tembari Kids.

My contact numbers are 3246-712 (office landline at The National newspaper) and 72231984. Or you can email me at the addresses below.

Tembari’s preschool children busy with their picture books inside their classroom.

Children excitedly posing for a souvenir shot with their picture books.

Penny Sagembo, TCC co-founder (center,) presides a meeting with volunteer teachers and mothers to prepare for this year’s program of activities at The Center.

The two classroom used by Tembari preschool children. The space they provide is no longer enough to accommodate new pupils. The third preschool class of about 30 children are holding their class under the mango tree in front of the two container vans. (All pictures by ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ)

Email the writer: alfredophernandez@thenational.com.pg
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Water tank installed but no water to fill it up

Hayward Sagembo, president of Tembari Children Care (TCC) Inc, posing in front of the newly-installed water tank facility at The Center’s premises.

By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
A Friend of Tembari Children

FINALLY, we are able to install a water tank for use at The Center.

And yet, our problem with water supply has not been solved.

Water service at ATS Oro settlement where the Tembari Children Care (TCC) is located is practically off, in the sense that you can’t expect it during times when it is badly needed.

In short, Eda Ranu’s water service at the village is practically non-existent.

And even if water comes to the settlement, there’s no assurance that it could reach our elevated water tank simply because water pressure is just enough to keep water flowing from low-lying taps -- in weak stream.

Early last year, when we were planning to install The Center’s water facility – that is a bulk water tank (1,000 gallons) plus an installation of water piping from the village mainline --water were still flowing, so to speak.

But toward the end of last year, Eda Ranu suddenly cut off service to ATS Oro Settlement at 7-Mile, on the other side of the Jackson international airport, after it was unable to collect close to K200,000 in unpaid bills from the settlement’s association.

The Oro Community Development Association which runs the water service at the village charges K1 each a day from water users and collects from them every fortnight. There are close to 1,000 households at the settlement.

But one mystery is that OCDA, over the years, has failed to pay the bills until the amount accumulated to close to K200,000.

A village source has told me that the OCDA officers were banking on a Member of Parliament to come to its rescue with regards to unpaid water bills.

That’s why they allegedly never bothered to pay the bills although it was collecting from water users every fortnight.

The big question: Who benefited from the money collected from water users over these years?

Anyway, Eda Ranu decided to resume its service after the association promised to pay in staggered amount until the entire debt is covered.

But to cut its losses from operations at ATS Oro Settlement, Eda Ranu has kept water pressure at ridiculously weak level that water almost doesn’t reach the taps.

This means if the settlement would consume less volume of water, Eda Ranu would be able to reduce its monthly losses from bills unpaid by the Oro Community Development Association.

THE MATERIALS used to install The Center’s water tank were donated by RH Foundation, Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), PNG Concrete Aggregates and New Zealand-based building engineer Joe Buenaventura.

As a contingency measure, we intend to buy bulk water from Eda Ranu to fill up our tank.

As to how much it would cost us a fortnight is another question.

So, we are keeping our fingers crossed on this.

Right now, The Center provides lunch snacks and early dinner to 110 beneficiary children from Monday to Saturday and clean water is crucial to its daily feeding program.

We have a volunteer who is especially assigned to wait for water to flow from the settlement’s public taps. However, she could only manage to collect just enough for cooking use during the day.

That’s why most of the time the children don’t drink water anymore after meals.

It’s good that we are getting a weekly donation of purified water from two water bottling companies in Port Moresby.

This way, the children are able to drink water after meals on Saturdays.

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

2011 special Saturday feeding gig resumes

By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
A Friend of Tembari Children

MY special Saturday lunch cooking session resumes this Saturday, January 29.

The first lunch-cooking gig for the year is being co-sponsored by Filipino businessman Albert Rocero -- proprietor of MovieWorld, outlets for quality DVD movies and all --- and the family of John Ping Law, an executive at Homeguard Construction Ltd.

Actually, Mrs John Ping Law and children Jen Wen Phoon and Jia Whye Phoon are co-sponsoring a total of three Saturday lunches, starting with one on Saturday.

And the other co-sponsors are the purified water companies Parklane International (Aqua 5) and The Water Company, Pacific Industries and Papua Niugini Freezers (PNF).

The Saturday special lunch cooking is a way for me to provide the kids something different for lunch.

The meal usually is made of beef-chicken-or fish fillet-vegetable dish, special soup, boiled rice and cordial drink.

On weekdays, from Monday to Friday, the Tembari children are serve an early dinner at 4pm of boiled rice and tinned fish prepared with local greens.

At noon, our preschoolers are served snacks of biscuits and cordial drinks.

By the way, 10 cartons of tinned fish are being supplied by RD Tuna each month.

It is one type of tinned fish product that the company exports to European Community in 1.8kg cans without brand.

ONCE SCHOOL gets in full swing, I could expect to see more than 110 children at my special Saturday lunch.

That means, I would have to increase the budget for my Saturday cooking from K400 to at least K500 to cover food for their number.

The cost of foodstuff in Port Moresby has gone up that the usual K400 that I used to raise from two co-sponsors who normally chipped in K200 each is no longer enough to cover cost of food for more than 110 children.

Asking my special lunch sponsors to increase their contributions is really big “inconvenience”.

But anyway, I would try doing it just the same.

I would just cross my fingers that they would still be willing to accommodate my request.

However, if I am unable to raise the actual cooking fund of K500, all I have to do is reduce the amount of servings to each of the kid.

This way, we could stretch the food so it could go around.

But this time, I would no longer call it “special” for obvious reason.

Anyway, for those who wish to co-sponsor a special lunch on Saturday, the cost if K250 each.

Let me know what you think about this.


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

Hopefully, 2011 would be better than 2010 for Tembari kids

Preschool children playing in their classroom while waiting for their special Saturday lunch.

Tembari’s grown-up children browsing picture books in a makeshift classroom used by preschoolers while waiting for lunch. Tembari is raising funds to build an appropriate classroom for use of its preschoolers.

By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
A friend of Tembari Children

HOPEFULLY, 2011 would be better than last year.

And 2010, no doubt, proved to be the best in all the years that the Tembari Children Care center had existed, from the time it was founded in 2003 up to December of 2009, when fate led me to the doorsteps of the center at the settlement and saw what I believed many people had failed to see: the Tembari children and their needs.

And seeing all this pushed me into doing something outside my orbit: looking for, and communicating to, people who were able enough, willing enough to shell out their precious kina to help a group of unfortunate settlement children rise above the poverty they were in and show them that there were still lots of people out there looking for an opportunity to help.

The key words then were: Would you like to help?

And help came and the year was 2010.

From my point of view, the Tembari children were truly better off last year than any time in their lives at their impoverished homes or at The Center.

They had, and still have until today, sufficient food; they were in school – both in preschool, elementary and primary; they lived in an atmosphere where they were treated like family; they had, and still have, modest amount of funds in the bank and they had a number of people who would always be there to help – just holler to them, as they say.

This year though would be tough because the needs of the Tembari children are increasing and the mood of our supporters could swing from “will donate” to “not this time”.

This is one scenario I have to anticipate, but anyway….

A third of our preschoolers – about 20 of them -- needs a decent classroom or something better than a space under the mango tree. During those days, when rain threatened, the kids had to be sent home as The Center did not have enough space to shelter them should there be a downpour.

We need a decent dirty kitchen where we could cook the meal of our 114 beneficiary children in little comfort. Cooking in the open under the beating heat of the sun is, by all standards, even here in Papua New Guinea, primitive.

That’s what we did six days a week for the entire 2010 – cooking on makeshift stove of three rock boulders or on a pair of cement blocks.

We need a small office where we could discuss with guardian parents problems relating to their foster children, and not under the shade of the tree which the administrators of the facility did.

We need a small office where we could keep the individual records of our beneficiary children, such as their profiles and those relating to their education.

Housing these three – a classroom, an office and a dirty kitchen – would require a multi-purpose, cement-floored structure occupying a space of 60sqm and costing and estimated K50,000 (US$18,000) to build.

It is money we don’t have, that’s why I recently launched a fundraising drive towards this endeavor to boost the initial K7,000 earlier donated to Tembari by AP Engineering Ltd of Takubar, Kokopo, East New Britain province for this purpose.

We need electricity. Although the PNG Power Ltd committed last to connect The Center to the power grid, it has yet to make good the promise.

While we are now about to complete the installation of a water supply facility comprising a 1,000 gallon tank and the needed attachments, the pressure of water being served to the settlement leaves much to be desired.

I am afraid water pressure won’t be able to bring water to our storage tank at The Center. So our water problem would continue.

I hope that the people, entities and business houses that supported us last year would continue to do so this year.

I should say their assistance last year made a big difference in meeting the needs of the Tembari Children, especially food.

Last year, the children had better nutrition from meals served twice a day from Monday to Friday, and a special meal on Saturday.

The food served was better because it consisted of rice and protein from fish or meat, compared to the time in 2009 and the years before when they only had meals four times a week, consisting of kaukau (sweet potatoes), greens, sliced bread and flat-tasting cordial drinks.

As a soup kitchen serving 114 hungry children, the Tembari feeding program has been a big success compared to the rest of some 15-like programs operating around Port Moresby.

It is something our benefactors could be proud of because their efforts to help improve the nutritional needs of the Tembari children did not fail.

And for all this, I owe them a BIG ONE.

If you think you are able to help us build a new classroom for our preschoolers, please credit your donation to:

Tembari Children Care (TCC) Inc,
Bank South Pacific
Waigani Branch, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
Bank Account #1001481651

For more information about the project, please don’t hesitate to contact me:

alfredophernandez@thenational.com.pg
jarahdz500@online.net.pg
freddiephernandez@yahoo.com

Office landline: (675) 3246-712 / cellphone: 72231984

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ONE AND ALL!