Tembari receives books from Buk Bilong Pikinini

Expatriate journalist Alfredo P Hernandez receives from Francesca Kupe, office manager of Buk Bilong Pikinini, a "bilum" of children’s books which are part of the 347 pieces of old and new books donated to Tembari Children’s Care (TCC) last Wednesday. – Photo courtesy of Buk Bilong Pikinini.

By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ

A Friend of Tembari Children

THE Tembari children were proud recipients of books from Buk Bilong Pikinini (Books for Children), a book charity based in Port Moresby.

The donation was turned over to me last Wednesday by Aussie expatriate Diane Popple, children’s book evaluator, and Francesca Kupe, office manager of Buk Bilong Pikinini.

The many boxes that I received contained 347 new and used books collected from different libraries and publishing houses in Australia as well as individual donors.

This donation is very timely because we have a growing number of schoolchildren and preschoolers who, at their young age, needed to be exposed to the joys of reading.

These books would help us start a mini-library which would lend books that our young learners at Tembari would have particular interest in.

Buk Bilong Pikinini aims to focus on early learning (as a key to literacy) through the creation of small libraries in communities based localities such as near settlements, clinics and market places.

“We collect books from private individuals and publishing houses and seek to obtain funding for our libraries through various fundraising efforts as well as through corporate sponsorships,” BBP said on its website.

For the school year 2012, Tembari will have 117 schoolchildren in elementary and primary schools and about 110 young learners at the facility’s preschool.

Ms Popple told me that they heard about Tembari children from a friend of hers, Ms Narelle Levey, who teaches at the Ela Murray International School (EMIS) in Port Moresby.

She said that one of her kids is studying at the school.

Ms Popple said that My Levey had recommended Tembari tobe one of the recipients of book donations that BBP would be making in the next several weeks.

Ms Popple contacted me through email to relay the good news about a bunch of books that would be coming to Tembari.

Thanks a lot, Buk Bilong Pikinini!

Email the blogger: ahernandez@thenational.com.pg and aphernandez58@yahoo.com

Oro community sing-sing: Lucky day for German couple

Ruddy is a member of the Kokoda cultural dance troupe that performed at the Oro community sing-sing show at the Botanical Garden on Saturday. The show was a fundraising effort of the Tembari Children’s Care (TCC) day care facility.

Ruddy (right) performing with her dance troupe. – More pictures by AP HERNANDEZ after the story.

By ALREDO P HERNANDEZ

A Friend of Tembari Children

A GERMAN couple who were on the last day of their tour of Papua New Guinea felt very lucky on Saturday.

“We have been here in PNG for a month, visiting villages that included those along Sepik river in the hope that we could see sing-sing groups there…” said Stefan and Christina Lang.

“But there was none … and we were in Lae for the same thing … but it was not the season for such a cultural show… so we moved around some more until we came back to Port Moresby,” Stefan told me.

The couplewere to leave the city today on their way back home via Manila.

“So, we decided to just visit the Botanical Garden (in Port Moresby) for some more interesting pictures that we could shoot and show back home,” Stefan said.

“But when we were at the gate, we saw a group of children in traditional attire … we asked what was it for and we were told that there would be a sing-sing show going to be held today …”

“We got excited and immediately bought tickets,” Christina said.

The show that the couple encountered was actually the one presented by the children from Oro settlement at 7 Mile outside Port Moresby.

On Saturday, about 80 children from seven ethnic groups in Oro province gathered for a rare presentation of traditional dances at the Botanical Garden.

The children, who belonged to seven villages in their home province of Oro, presented the respective tribal dances of their villages.

The dancers were from Tufi, Oro province; Central Kaiva, Oro province; Kivori-Kairuku, Central province; Central Ioma No. 1, Oro province; Central Ioma No. 2, Oro province; Kokoda, Central province; and Tembari group from Oro province.

Each of sing-sing group had its queen who competed for the title Queen Tembari of 2012.

Tembari referred to a day care facility called Tembari Children’s Care (TCC) which looks after about 200 unfortunate, abandoned and orphan children from the Oro settlement.

A number of those who participated in the dance are actually beneficiaries of Tembari, which is the show sponsor.

The sing-sing was Tembari’s contribution to the celebration of the World Children’s Day this month.

It was also held to raise fund for the unfortunate children back in Oro province.

After the show, the German couple made a token donation towards the fundraising effort.

Tembari is hoping to set up a facility that would cater for those children, according to Tembari co-founder Penny Sage-embo.

For your donations, please contact Patison Kopada, Tembari administrator, on telephone 726-19552 and cellphone 726-19552 and telephone 3422-047.

The Tembari sing-sing group.

The Oro Ioma No. 1 dance troupe

The Oro Ioma No. 2 dance troupe

Dance group from Kivori-Kairuku, Central

Dance group from Tufi, Oro province.

Dance group from Central Kaiva

Email the blogger: ahernandez@thenational.com.pg and aphernandez58@yahoo.com