A friend-donor calls in

Jovy Baltazar, manager of Paradise Business Consultants Ltd or Port Moresby, PNG, turns over a cheque for K7,000 (about US$3,000) to Alfredo P Hernandez, a Filipino expatriate journalist, who received the donation on behalf of the Tembari children. Donated by Engr Ariel Parro, owner and managing director of AP Engineering Ltd, a construction company in East New Britain province, Papua New Guinea, the funds would go towards the building of a 133sqm multi-purpose hall that would house a classroom, a dirty kitchen and an office. – Picture by Paradise Business Consultants.


By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
A Friend of Tembari Children


A FEW days ago, I friend called to say hello and also to say she got some stuff for the Tembari children.

Do I have time to pick the money? She would like to know.

Jovy G Baltazar, is a Filipino expat manager who first joined my network of supporters early last year to help me find new donors.

Her company – the Paradise Business Consultants – deals with immigration documentations for both corporate and individual clients, and is doing good business from investors and professionals wanting to come to PNG, encouraged by the booming economy.

Indeed, Jovy found one -- from among her clients. He is Engineer Ariel Parro, who owns the AP Engineering Ltd based in Takubar, East New Britain, an island- province north of Papua New Guinea.

Engr Parro learned of my plan to put up a three-classroom building for our preschoolers (then only 60 and now 100) and subsequently sent Jovy a cheque for K7,000 and requested her to deliver it to Tembari.

The money, he said, could start Tembari’s effort to raise funds needed to build the school building.

This amount, along with the K3,000 from the Filipino Association of PNG (FAPNG), was recently made as down payment with the Hardware Haus for the prefabricated knockdown building parts for the project.

This project, hopefully, would take off very soon, thanks to the Australian High Commission in PNG and four corporations who pledged to put up the classroom building which will cost K120,000 (US$51,000)

Our donor-engineer, who has been residing in Takubar for 20 years or so, is a PNG naturalized citizen.

“It’s my way of giving back to the community,” he told me over the phone from Takubar when I first talked to him about my project.

Jovy first visited our center at Tembari early last year to have a look-see.

And this coming Saturday, she would like to make her second visit with some of her Filipino office workers – to introduce them to Tembari kids, and maybe make them new donors and/or supporters.

With the funds Jovy gave me last Thursday, I bought about two cartons of 425g Ox&Palm corned beef for the children’s dinner this week.

A dinner of corned beef dish and rice would be a rare treat for our kids whose number has now grown to about 200.

This dish could come only once in a blue moon. And it is always a happy occasion when something new goes into the meals of our children, such as corned beef.

Dinner at Tembari – from Monday to Saturday -- would be rice and tinned fish cooked in veggies, and cordial drink.

However, our kids don’t mind at all. It is food and they are having it every day; and food is something missing at home, blame it on their families’ poverty.

So, when Jovy told me she has raised some money courtesy of her company for our children’s meal, there was only one thing in my mind: buy our kids corned beef, for a change.

So far, we have been able to stabilize food flow at Tembari.

Right now, we are serving two meals daily – noon snacks and early dinner -- to about 200 kids – 100 preschoolers, 79 schoolchildren and the rest non-school age.

Thanks to Jovy and the rest of our generous donors who see to it that foodstuff continue to arrive at the center.

It is their simple way of making sure that our beneficiary children receive the nutrition they needed everyday to keep them beyond ill-health and above hunger.

After all, they could have realized that sustained generosity in support is the key to making their effort succeed in effecting positive changes in the lives of the Tembari children.

Simply put, they are taking a big stake in their future.


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