ABC donates towards Tembari stonewall project

The stonewall project that has been stalled for lack of materials. – More pictures after the story.

By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ

A Friend of Tembari Children

THE ballooning number of children at Tembari has given us another concern – their safety.

Every day when our preschoolers (whose number has grown to 100 from 45 a year ago), run around the premises, they would normally spill into the village road which is just in front of the day care facility.

This road is posing great danger to our children. The PMVs (public buses) traverse this without due concern to the pedestrians, much less the Tembari children.

So sometime ago, we decided to fence the frontage of the Tembari lot.

To start it off, we recently began the stonewalling of this portion immediately facing the village road.

And on top of the stonewall (once completed) would sit a metal fence that has been planned to go around the perimeter of 3,000sqm leased land upon which Tembari sits. But this would come later.

So far, we have already covered about half of the 45 meter-frontage.

Problem is that the project has been stalled since we ran out of cement and gravel/sand which also came from previous donors particularly the PNG Concrete and Aggregates.

On top of this burden, the hollow blocks that have been left idle for the time being and are just sitting under a mango tree would not be enough to span the remaining 20 meters space remaining of the stonewall. The hollow blocks were also donated by PNG Concrete Aggregates.

One day last week, I emailed Filipino-expat executive Zeny Ala about this problem.

Her family owns the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) Ltd, a medium-sized concern with on-going projects in Port Moresby.

On that same day, I got a call from one of ABC’s staff, informing me of the assistance that her boss – Zeny – would like to extend to Tembari’s (stonewalling) project.

She would like to pay for the cost of cement materials needed to complete the project. (We received the funds last week.)

I was very much pleased, considering that Zeny had sent the instruction from the Philippines where she is right now holidaying with husband John.

For all you know, ABC has been one of Tembari’s regular supporters and in times like this, it comes to make our day.

Thanks a lot, John and Zeny Ala.

For those who have the opportunity to help us complete the stonewall/fencing project in the form of concrete and aggregate supplies and/or metal fencing materials, please contact us.

So far so good, the Tembari children are getting there.

The hollow blocks to be used in the stonewalling project, a donation from PNG Concrete Aggregates.

The unfinished stonewall with the village road shown in the background.

For comments, please email the blogger: ahernandez@thenational.com.pg and aphernandez58@yahoo.com