Tembari marks 9th year with open house at center

By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ

A Friend of Tembari Children

THE Tembari Children’s Care (TCC), a day-care facility, will mark its 9^th year as a government-recognized community-based organization (CBO) with an open house at the center at Oro settlement outside Port Moresby on Saturday, March 10.

Penny Sage-embo, Tembari founder and programme coordinator, said the centre will showcase its on-going programs for about 200 beneficiary children that included early childhood education (pre-school), elementary and primary schooling and feeding, among others.

“This year’s celebration would allow us show the center’s progress from 2010 when our generous sponsors and supporters began coming in with assistance,” Sage-embo said.

Founded in 2003, Tembari began with a handful of street children who were taken care of by some volunteer mothers from the settlement.

Those days, the children, who were orphans, abandoned and neglected, were provided simple meals of kaw-kaw and veggies at least three times a week, alongside motherly care from volunteers.

It was only in 2009 when Tembari began offering early childhood education to its beneficiary children with help from Digicel Foundation, which provided a classroom facility and teaching materials.

That time, there were already 78 beneficiary children, with most of them preschoolers who were provided meals at least three times a week. Their schooling was handled by three volunteer teachers.

It was only in 2010 when the centre began feeding the children from Monday to Saturday with rice and protein and occasional fresh milk, thanks to the generous assistance from a number of corporate and individual sponsors.

The anniversary activities will start at 8.20am, with the arrival of guests comprising donor-sponsors and supporters.

A group of Tembari chidldren’s sing-sing group will perform as part of TCC’s cultural program.

This year, we expect to look after 116 elementary and primary school children plus 40 preschoolers.

The rest of the kids would be those of non-school age – from 4 to 2 years old.

All in all, we are expecting to serve close to 200 children this year that also include preschoolers from settlement families with fathers and mothers who have means to support them adequately.

These parents send their children to Tembari because it is the only preschool facility operating at Oro settlement.

It is good that this year’s school fees of our school children have been shouldered by the government. However, the cost of their school projects would be paid by sponsors.

The March 3 event will also see the feeding of the beneficiary children and in this occasion, I would like to serve them something especial for their Saturday lunch.

If you think you are able to donate protein such as sausages or chicken and bread (buns or loaves) and cordial drinks towards this occasion, please don’t hesitate to let me know through the email provided below.

They would also welcome – with open arms – ice cream!

This once-in-a-blue-moon lunch treat would make the Tembari children’s day very special.

Contact the blogger: ahernandez@thenational.com.pg

Homeguard Construction donates K1,000 towards Tembari feeding program

       Tembari children having soup while waiting for the main course of rice and 

       chicken stew during one of their Saturday feeding activities. – Photo by AP 

       HERNANDEZ

By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ

A Friend of Tembari Children

THE Homeguard Construction based in Port Moresby has donated K1,000 towards the feeding program for Tembari children.

The cheque for the amount was delivered to me last Thursday.

It would go a long way towards the daily feeding activities at the Tembari center located at Oro settlement outside of Port Moresby.

Having checked the prices of foodstuff such as noodles and biscuits in one of the supermarkets around, I learned that the fund would buy at least 17 cartons of cheap biscuits and at least 15 cartons of instant noodle soup.

You see, these items would support the daily noon snacks of our beneficiary preschoolers, who, this school year would number close to 40 aside from some 90 preschool children from the Oro community.

What I am trying to say is that we are expecting at least 40 beneficiary preschoolers from the community who are orphans, neglected and abandoned.

After their classes which begin at 8am are done by noon, the kids are served snack foods such as noodles or biscuits along cordial drinks and fresh milk if it’s available.

The rest of the preschoolers who would be numbering 90 this school year would go home for lunch. They are children from families with means to support them through school.

But the Tembari preschoolers don’t usually go home to their bubus, guardians and relatives.

They stay put at the center through afternoon doing some educational activities including watching DVD kiddie programs until the main feeding activity for the day takes place later in the afternoon. This is the late dinner comprising rice and protein, which could be tinned meat or tinned fish cooked with veggies.

About this time, the Tembari beneficiary children attending schools at two major elementary schools in Port Moresby – one is the Wardstrip Elementary School -- would be homing in for the early dinner, which they share with the preschoolers.

This year, we expect to have about 116 elementary and primary school children plus 40 preschoolers. The rest of the kids would be those of non-school age – from 4 to 2 years old. All in all, we are expecting to serve close to 200 children this year.

After the feeding, they go home for the night to come back the next day for school.

Since Tembari preschool is the only one operating at Oro settlement, many parents have decided to send their young learners to our school.

As a CBO, or community-based organization registered with Investment Promotion Authority (IPA), the Tembari Children’s Care (TCC) is mandated to take in learners from the community if their parents decided to have them schooled at our facilities.

It is just unfortunate that our facilities could no longer handle some 130 preschool children coming to us this school year.

So far the center has only three classrooms – one of these is a 20-footer junked container van converted into a classroom to accommodate at least 30 kids sitting like packed sardines.

Actually there used to be two fitted out container vans from Digicel Foundation. But since Tembari did not have an office space and some place to store foodstuff donations, the TCC management has opted to use one of the two containers for this purpose.

This school year, two small classes of at least 20 each will hold classes in two makeshift classrooms on both wings of the container van, which serves as the main classroom.

The rest would be holding classes under the tree nearby.

Three teachers, who are paid monthly stipends, handle the classes.

Meanwhile, Tembari’s school building project has been put on hold pending the issuance of a title covering the 3,500sqm-property on which the centre stands.

The main classroom project sponsor – the Australian High Commission – has required a legitimate land title to the property before it finally gives the go signal for the classroom building construction.

The cost of the project is more than K100,000 and the funds are just waiting to be tapped.

One of our early school project sponsors is AP Engineering Ltd based in Kokopo, East New Britain, which donated K7,000 to start off the funding raising drive. APEL is owned by Filipino-PNG citizen Engineer Ariel Parro.

The other sponsor is the AkzoNobel, a paint maker.

If you think you are able to help the Tembari kids with foodstuff to sustain the center’s daily feeding program, please don’t hesitate to contact this blogger through the email addresses provided below.

Meantime, I would like to thank HomeGuard Construction for its generous donation.

As you would know, HG would pop once in a while a generous cheque to cheer up the Tembari children.

The company just did last week and I would relay this  gesture to the children once I delivered the foodstuff to the center.

For feedback, please email the blogger: aphernandez@thenational.com.pg  and alfredophernandez@y7mail.com

RH Trading staff cheer Tembari kids on Chinese New Year

By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ

A Friend of Tembari Children

RH TRADING, Papua New Guinea’s biggest trading house,   capped the celebration of the Chinese New Year this year with a visit to the Tembari children on Saturday.

From January 23 this year, Chinese people across the globe celebrated the Year of the Dragon.

Led by CC Ang, general manager of RH Hypermart, the group composed of Filipinos and local personnel came to the centre with a lot of goodies for the kids.

More than 100 Tembari children showed up to each receive “Ang Pao”, a red envelop usually presented at gatherings or on holidays such as the Chinese New Year. 

The envelopes contained token amount, which delighted the children as it was the first time that they received a gift such as this one.

The red colour of the envelope symbolises good luck and is supposed to ward off evil spirits.

Ang said they visited the children to present to them several goodies such rice, noodles, milk, tinned fish and candies, among others to mark the close of the Chinese New Year’s celebration.

Hayward Sagembo, president of the Tembari Chidren’s Care (TCC) thanked the visitors, saying that it was one of those occasions that the Tembari children would receive visitors from the expatriate community.

Sagembo noted that groups from the Malaysian community such as RH Trading has been one of those that continued to be around to bring foodstuff donations badly needed by the children.

Tembari is a day-care facility providing preschool education to more than 100 children alongside elementary and primary schooling to more than 100 others.

The centre also provides twice-a-day feeding session from Monday to Friday to the beneficiary children, with help from various donors and supporters in Port Moresby.

If you think you are able to donate something to the children, please don’t hesitate to contact this blogger through the email provided below.

For feedback, please email the blogger: aphernandez@thenational.com.pg and alfredophernandez@y7mail.com