October 12, 2012
By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
A Friend of Tembari Children
1) Septic tank facility. Through a private donor, Tembari Children’s Care (TCC) is now working on the installation of a septic tank for toilets that will be installed once the four-room classroom building project for our pre-school kids has been built at the compound. The dimension of the ditch that is now being worked on by a private contractor is more than 9 feet x 18 feet, with a capacity of 56,000 liters. The estimated cost of the project is about K20,000. The school building project is being funded by a group of individuals from the expatriate community in Port Moresby in coordination with the Australian High Commission. While Tembari has its own batch of preschoolers (those who come from very poor families at the settlement), another batch of preschoolers attending the same classes comes from families who could afford to pay. The problem is that Tembari is the only preschool facility at ATS Oro and that it cannot refuse this group of children, although the facility is designed for the less-privileged children from the community.
2) PMV fares for Tembari schoolchildren. Two Filipino companies have solved our problem concerning our elementary schoolchildren’s daily bus fares in going to their school at Gordons (Wardstip) from the ATS Oro settlement. The Associated Builders & Contractors (ABC) and the Paradise Business Consultants, Ltd have chipped in a total of K1,000 (every month) to support the 30 children’s daily bus fares of K2 each -- going to school and coming home to the settlement. But it seems, problems continue to haunt our kids. The Tembari management has hired a 15-seater PMV to pick up the kids every morning at the center. The bus could only shuttle a maximum of 20, leaving another batch of 10. But due to the traffic congestion at Erima, especially at the roundabout, the shuttle bus could not return to the village as fast as it can for the other 10 kids. When it finally reached the center, it’s almost mid-morning and the 10 kids were late for school. Now, Tembari president Hayward Sagembo is looking for a bigger PMV which could take the 30 schoolchildren in one go. And by next school year, we are going to enroll our kids in just one school – preferably WardStrip so those whom we are supporting with daily bus fares could be picked up from one spot. Right now, our schoolchildren totaling 60 (30 of them can afford to pay the daily bus fares) are enrolled not only at Wardstrip but also in two other schools in Port Moresby.
3) Foodstuff such as tinned fish/meat needed. Our foodstuff stock is dwindling fast and we would have shortage soon to be able to support our daily feeding program. Right now we have about 150-160 children who are depending on Tembari for their daily meals. Tembari would like to provide the children with enough fish and meat protein to improve the quality of their daily meals. If your company could help us sustain the daily food needs of the Tembari children, please don’t hesitate to let us know. The children consume about 36 bags of rice (10kg) monthly, (15kg a day from Monday to Saturday) alongside other food items. We are also having problem with firewood that we use in cooking the kids’ everyday meal. Right now, our cooking staff would use three bundles of firewood (from 9 Mile roadside vendors) at a cost of K10 per or K60 a week. We don’t have enough funds for this expense, as we try to make use of it in buying ingredients that go with tinned fish/meat. We are appealing to timber companies with timber yards within in Port Moresby for their donation of off-cut timbers for firewood.
4) Land title hoped to come soon. Tembari is still trying to hasten the release of a land title to the 3,500sqm plus property that it occupies now. Our school project director – a British expat – is working hard to speed up the process of its release. I has been advised that the General Surveyor from the Lands Department visited our compound recently as part of the titling process. The property would be enclosed with a perimeter fence, which would cost some few thousands of kina. The project director is working out a funding for this, alongside the septic tank facility.
For comments, please email the blogster: ahernandez@thenational.com.pg and alfredophernandez@y7mail.com
2) PMV fares for Tembari schoolchildren. Two Filipino companies have solved our problem concerning our elementary schoolchildren’s daily bus fares in going to their school at Gordons (Wardstip) from the ATS Oro settlement. The Associated Builders & Contractors (ABC) and the Paradise Business Consultants, Ltd have chipped in a total of K1,000 (every month) to support the 30 children’s daily bus fares of K2 each -- going to school and coming home to the settlement. But it seems, problems continue to haunt our kids. The Tembari management has hired a 15-seater PMV to pick up the kids every morning at the center. The bus could only shuttle a maximum of 20, leaving another batch of 10. But due to the traffic congestion at Erima, especially at the roundabout, the shuttle bus could not return to the village as fast as it can for the other 10 kids. When it finally reached the center, it’s almost mid-morning and the 10 kids were late for school. Now, Tembari president Hayward Sagembo is looking for a bigger PMV which could take the 30 schoolchildren in one go. And by next school year, we are going to enroll our kids in just one school – preferably WardStrip so those whom we are supporting with daily bus fares could be picked up from one spot. Right now, our schoolchildren totaling 60 (30 of them can afford to pay the daily bus fares) are enrolled not only at Wardstrip but also in two other schools in Port Moresby.
3) Foodstuff such as tinned fish/meat needed. Our foodstuff stock is dwindling fast and we would have shortage soon to be able to support our daily feeding program. Right now we have about 150-160 children who are depending on Tembari for their daily meals. Tembari would like to provide the children with enough fish and meat protein to improve the quality of their daily meals. If your company could help us sustain the daily food needs of the Tembari children, please don’t hesitate to let us know. The children consume about 36 bags of rice (10kg) monthly, (15kg a day from Monday to Saturday) alongside other food items. We are also having problem with firewood that we use in cooking the kids’ everyday meal. Right now, our cooking staff would use three bundles of firewood (from 9 Mile roadside vendors) at a cost of K10 per or K60 a week. We don’t have enough funds for this expense, as we try to make use of it in buying ingredients that go with tinned fish/meat. We are appealing to timber companies with timber yards within in Port Moresby for their donation of off-cut timbers for firewood.
4) Land title hoped to come soon. Tembari is still trying to hasten the release of a land title to the 3,500sqm plus property that it occupies now. Our school project director – a British expat – is working hard to speed up the process of its release. I has been advised that the General Surveyor from the Lands Department visited our compound recently as part of the titling process. The property would be enclosed with a perimeter fence, which would cost some few thousands of kina. The project director is working out a funding for this, alongside the septic tank facility.
For comments, please email the blogster: ahernandez@thenational.com.pg and alfredophernandez@y7mail.com
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