Saddest Saturday for Tembari children

A usual scene at The Center every Saturday when the kids are seated on the dining tables while waiting for a special lunch to be served. On Saturday, this did not happen after the Saturday cook, APH, failed to come as he did not have a vehicle to use in coming to the settlement.


By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
A Friend of Tembari Children


I FELT BAD, and I am still right now, for being unable to cook lunch for the kids on Saturday.

I knew they had looked forward to this day because it was only this time when they could have a decent meal. And as always, they had anticipated sipping a nice hot soup before special lunch is served.

And for my part, I have pledged to myself I would do this without fail, save for the time when I would be going home to Manila for my four-week annual leave, which comes in April.

And this was made possible by individuals who “sponsored” the food I cooked every Saturday.

Those who know of my Saturday gig at The Center with the Children could only comment: “Freddie, that’s a tough job you’re doing for the children …”

This had been the first day ever that I missed cooking for them. I began this Saturday special lunch cooking 10 months ago when I realized that the Tembari Children during those days were not eating proper meal.

The reason was that The Center did not get assistance it is getting now, especially foodstuff and materials.

But I blame nothing for what has happened and continuously happening.

My 20-year-old car – a station wagon Mazda 323 -- that had allowed me to move around and collect donations every Friday, buy foodstuff that would go into the lunch of the Tembari children and brought me every Saturday morning to The Center at the heart of ATS Oro Settlement, at 7-Mile outside of Port Moresby, has finally given up.

When it stopped dead after its distributor system conked out due to old age, and no junkshops and surplus car parts stores in Port Moresby could provide a replacement part, a lot of things at the Tembari Center seemed to have stopped.

There were donations to be collected last Friday but I was unable to do so, including that purified drinking water that I usually brought to The Center on Saturday.

I was afraid the children did not have water to drink after their lunch of rice and tinned fish on Saturday.

There’s a water crisis at the settlement and obtaining drinking water has been the most difficult for our volunteer mothers.

For Saturday’s lunch, I called Penny Sagembo, the Co-Founder and Co-President of Tembari Children Care (TCC) center – and requested her to have something for lunch.

The kids had expected to have a nice lunch, as always, thinking that I would be coming over, like what I had done every Saturday over the last nine and half months.

But I did not.

So our volunteer mothers just prepared a meal of tinned fish and rice, something that they usually have from Monday to Friday.

Now car-less, and the prospect of being one really persisted, I can’t call potential donors to follow up on a number of stuff that I have solicited on behalf of the Tembari children.

One reason is that, should they make available the requested items, I may not be able to pick them up, which I felt could disappoint them.

For instance, there’s a donation of eight cartons of cordial drink from Coca-Cola Amatil that is due for this month. However, I can’t arrange to have it released since I have no means to haul them off from its depot at Gordon, and bring them to The Center at the settlement.

Ten cartons of flavored milk at SVS supermarket, a cheque from the Children’s Foundation covering a monthly grant, five containers of purified water from The Water Company and another four cartons of cordial drink from Pacific Industries are waiting to be picked up.

I don’t want to ask friends to help out, knowing it would be a lot of hassle.

Truly, it has been a big setback for us – especially for the Tembari Children.

I did not expect something like this could happen, including a car that could go dead for good.

There are people ready to give, and continue to give for the sake of the Tembari Children; it is an assurance that service towards their well-being would be sustained.

But there are also gremlins that could pop their heads even in broad-day light and spoil everything.

Early last week, they just did it.


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My car conks out and it affects a lot of people; Hideaway Hotel makes our day

The special dish catered by Hideaway Hotel for the Tembari children. More pictures below story.

By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
A Friend of Tembari Children


EARLY last week, my car broke down and this misfortune in my life has also affected a lot of people.

A 20-year-old car, its distributor system conked out for good and my mechanic has failed to find a replacement, with the car parts stores all over Port Moresby saying: It’s a very old car… parts won’t come by easily … time to retire it …”

With no vehicle to enable me to do many errands for the Tembari children, I am practically crippled.

The usual Friday afternoon super-marketing I do for foodstuff and ingredients that would go into the children’s special lunch the next day – a Saturday – has become impossible. This means that I would not be able to go to The Center to cook for the kids.

It is only on a Saturday that the Tembari children are able to have a decent lunch which is sponsored by two individuals chipping in K150 each.

Not only that. It’s on a Friday that I would collect all sorts of donations that I would bring to The Center the next day. And that car has doubled as The Center’s delivery truck – on occasions carrying several bags of rice, cartons of cordial drinks or tinned fish, etc etc.

One important routine that I normally do on a Friday is to pick up five containers of purified water – a donation from The Water Company. Last Friday I was not able to do that.

The result? The kids had their lunch without tasting a single drop of water.

The settlement’s water service operated by the village association, as usual, remains hopeless – water did not come at the time agreed upon, to the chagrin of many people whose buckets and plastic containers made a long line in front of the dry tap.

Our volunteer mothers came back to The Center with empty buckets.

Feeling bad that I would not be able to bring food to The Center for the next day’s feeding – a Saturday choir that I have been doing since last January – I was forced on Friday night to call a Filipino expatriate who manages the Hideaway Hotel at 6-Mile.

It was my last resort – the only option to save the children’s day. The kids have been used to having a nice lunch every Saturday – something very much different from what they usually have for a meal from Monday to Friday.

I told him my problem – beginning from the car breakdown, to the foodstuff and ingredients for the next day’s feeding program that I was unable to buy.

“Can you ask your chef to prepare something for the kids’ lunch tomorrow?” I asked him shamelessly, without preamble.

“How many kids are we talking about …?” Don Manaloto, the general manager of Hideaway hotel, asked back without making further questions.

“At least 97, plus seven volunteer mothers … do you think this is workable …?” I asked back.

“Okay … not a problem …” Don replied, adding: “I will tell the kitchen to do some nice dish and have it delivered before lunch time … you said 11am, right?”

But then, I wanted to come to The Center to do other things. Earlier, I had planned to teach the volunteer mother assigned to cook the children’s daily meals how to make bread, using yeast.

We have a huge flour stock, a donation from Lae Biscuits that we have to consume immediately before bugs and weevils beat us on it.

But this one may not push through that day as I won’t be able to go to The Center.

But luckily, a friend wanted to meet the Tembari children on Saturday and to bring them a carton of ice cream, so I asked him to pick me up at home, explaining that I was, and still, car-less.
On our way to The Center, I got a call from Hayward Sagembo, Co-Founder and Director of Tembari Children Care (TCC), to say that food from Hideaway Hotel just arrived. He asked if I f I was coming. I said I was on the way now.

The catered lunch was great – chicken stew with lots of meat and potatoes and gravy. The diners– numbering 90 kids – enjoyed the food enormously.

Since there was no water to drink (we even skipped the kids’ hands washing as there was no water to spare), I told the volunteer mothers to give them milk instead, just to have something to wash the food down their throats.

I don’t know how long it would take the mechanic to find the parts that would resurrect my car. I have been using this junk for the last 14 years that it should really be retired now – for good.

But that is out of the question.

Penny Sagembo, TCC Co-Founder and Co-President, apportioning to the 90 kids who came for lunch on Saturday.

A volunteer mother serving lunch to the kids.

Children enjoying their lunch despite having no water to drink.

These two water coolers are empty due to water crisis at the village.

Empty milk packs strewn under the table while mothers prepare to serve milk to the children to take the place of drinking water.

A volunteer mother scoops chocolate ice cream for the children.

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Livelihood program for Tembari volunteer mothers

The 10 volunteer mothers of The Center display their Micro-Finance bank savings passbooks while Penny Sagembo (back) founder of the Tembari Children Care (TCC) center looks.


By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
A Friend of Tembari Children

THE Center made another small leap forward last week by helping its 10 volunteer mothers help themselves.

Using some money from donated funds, the Tembari Children Care (TCC) has rolled out its own version of a livelihood assistance project for the volunteer mothers who are now engaged in small buying-and-selling business at the settlement.

TCC founder Penny Sagembo has set aside K1,000 to hit two targets.

With the first K500, she helped the 10 mothers opened a savings bank account with PNG Micro-Finance, each receiving a savings passbook with a starting savings balance of K50.

Then, the other K500 was equally divided to the volunteer mothers – or K50 each – as The Center’s livelihood assistance so they could start with some small business activities in the settlement that would enable them to generate daily income.

In short, each mother has secured a K100 livelihood assistance, for a total of K1,000 which they will to repay from their profits at the rate of K20 a fortnight.

According to Micro-Finance, the Tembari volunteer mothers belong to a group which usually does not receive services from commercial banks like opening a savings bank accounts.

The main reason is that they are simply financially handicapped.

Every fortnight, the mothers will have to repay the seed capital and the initial saving account balance at the rate of K20 from their daily profits. Then, they would also set aside an amount that would go into their savings accounts.

Once a mother participant has an accumulated savings of K300, she becomes eligible to apply for a K300 seed capital at low interest to expand her buy-and-sell activities.

“Some of the mothers started selling their wares early last week and are doing good … they have already set aside the first K20 from their profit to repay the seed capital and another amount which they would deposit in their individual bank accounts,” Penny said.

The mothers are engaged in buying and selling betelnuts, smokes, lollies and vegetables among others and they sell them at the flea market at the settlement.

“Once a participant mother has saved a total of K300 in her bank account, Micro-Finance would now make available to her a soft loan of K300, or an amount it would determine so she could use it to expand her buy-and-sell business,” Penny said.

The mother participants, who are single mothers and considered by TCC as financially-handicapped, have children among the 97 beneficiaries of The Center’s day care services.

Penny said the mothers could use part of their profits for the immediate needs of their schoolchildren like bus fares and school snacks.

These schoolchildren numbering 42 are among those being looked after by TCC by feeding them everyday and paying for their school fees with help from WeCaRe!, a funding institution operated by retired priest Fr John Glynn.

After attending the day’s classes in 11 elementary and primary schools around Port Moresby, they come home to The Center in the afternoon to have early dinner, before going home to their guardian parents for the night.

Penny said TCC could not afford to pay for the schoolchildren’s daily bus fares and snacks, but by providing the guardian parents a means to earn, they (parents) would be able to meet their foster-children’s daily needs.

The K1,000 seed money came from funds donated by charity groups and funding institutions.

Once the 10 mothers had repaid TCC, another batch of 10 underprivileged settlement mothers would follow suit under the same scheme.

I say kudos to Penny for continuously thinking of ways and means to help the Tembari children and their guardians. It’s something that she has been doing for them since 2003, when she founded TCC and operated it at great personal sacrifice.

Now, this livelihood scheme is one feather added to her cap, which has been gathering feathers since 10 months ago.

Indeed, it’s a small step that The Center has just taken.

And just to think that 10 mothers are now on their way to being able to become self-sufficient through this humble means … it’s quite amazing!

In short, 10 mothers are gradually being plucked from their sheer helplessness, and maybe out of their poverty.

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Young Raphael needs your help

One-year-old Raphael Gunisa with his foster-mother Cella Gunisa at The Center on Saturday. The young boy needs milk and vitamins.


By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
A Friend of Tembari Children

ONE-YEAR-OLD Raphael Gunisa was brought to The Center on Saturday for help.

Raphael’s two legs and feet are in cast, done by the physiotherapist at the POM General Hospital about a week ago.

He was born with deformities in both of his feet: they are pointing inwards and he could stand with only the outer sides of his two feet – and not the soles -- touching the ground.

So his balance is off and his body sways left and right while standing.

And when he walks, he does it awkwardly, with his knees almost touching each other.

However, Raphael doesn’t feel any pain, thinking his way of walking is just natural. It’s only that he finds it hard to move around – meaning to walk around awkwardly.

Raphael is the fourth child of a couple who has no means to support themselves.

So on December 29, 2009, when he was just three months old, Raphael was given away by her parents to Cella Gunisa, 40, who lives at ATS Oro Settlement, at 7-Mile outside of Port Moresby.

The reason was that his parents have already three kids – all of them boys – and that they really wanted to have a girl.

So, they gave away poor Raph for adoption.

But foster parent Cella knew better.

Immediately, she already knew that her parents were aware Raph has deformities and that they did not want to have anything to do with him.

Last week, on advice from a doctor, Cella brought Raphael to a physiotherapist at the hospital who put the child’s legs and feet on cast. It is in the hope that the cast would do the trick – to make the feet normal.

It would be removed after six weeks, after which the attending doctor would determine if Raphael needed a surgery to fix the problem.

This exercise could be costly and Cella would like to appeal for help to get it done so her child would walk like a normal child.

With the cast in his legs and feet, Raphael moves around in the house crawling.

Raphael is now among the children that The Center is looking after. But the facility has no means to deal with his problem, so we are appealing for help on his behalf.

The boy is only a year old and his bones are still soft, so to speak. A surgery done as soon as possible has all the chance to solve his problem.

And he needs some feeding help – he needs toddler’s milk because the milk The Center has – the ones in one-litter packs – would not be suited for him.

Anyone who is able to help Raphael could contact me through my email addresses below. Or call me at my numbers – 324-6712 or 722-31984.

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Bread-making at The Center begins

APH in action while volunteer mothers watch to see the techniques in kneading bread dough. More pictures below story.


By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
A Friend of Tembari Children

FINALLY, the crude oven fashioned from roofing sheet material was delivered to The Center last week.

Costing K300, it was fabricated in a workshop operated by a vocational school at Gerehu, a suburb in Port Moresby.

The oven is one of our means to deal with the huge stock of whole meal flour donated by Lae Biscuits. It could take us months to consume the two tons of flour we received. And bugs and weevils would be at it very soon.

One of these means is to bake bread for the daily snack needs of our children. Making bread would also do away with buying the expensive biscuits which we used to serve them for snacks.

And to start the ball rolling, I held a bread-making demo last Saturday for the benefit of volunteer mothers assigned to cook the Tembari children’s meals.

I find it quite inspiring because making bread is one of my favorite hubbies, which I had actually neglected for many, many years – 13 years.

When I first came to Port Moresby 17 years ago, I had a very boring existence. You can imagine Port Moresby during those days as a dead place – and deader on weekends -- for a new comer who was used to living in a noisy, lively city like Metro Manila.

So on Fridays and Saturdays, which happened to be my days off, I looked for things to do to spice up my life at home. I found bread-making to be one of them.

After cooling those freshly baked bread, I would distribute the buns to my apartment-neighbors who actually were my colleagues at The National newspaper.

They served as my guinea pigs, because the bread that I baked was a hit-and-miss affair. But later, I perfected the recipe which I continuously used for the next three years. Then I stopped it for one reason of the other.

Some 13 years ago on Saturday, I got back to it. I showed the 10 volunteer mothers how basic bread-making is usually done.

I knew they also baked bread but they would use baking powder and would produce what is known here in PNG as scones – a stone-hard stuff that you need a cordial to push it down your throat.

For my demo bread, I had an old recipe that used yeast.

The mothers said it was their first time to see yeast being used in bread. They were used to baking power, they said.

The recipe was quite complicated for first-timers like our volunteer mothers, so I explained it carefully and slowly.

While the oven was being fired for the first time to achieve the required baking temperature, I busied myself wrestling with the dough from whole meal flour. Kneading it was quite a tough job as it involved at least six cups of flour for demo purposes.

But it could be tougher, especially for the mothers, once they doubled the volume of flour to process to cover 97 children.

Actually, the demo bread was intended for the volunteer mothers so they would know exactly how freshly baked bread would taste.

But while I was working it, 12 children arrived at The Center one at a time, all expecting that there would still be food left for lunch. But lunch had been over two hours ago and all the children-diners had gone home.

Lucky these 12 children were. They were the ones who enjoyed the buns that I baked from the newly-arrived crude oven!


APH in the process of initially kneading the dough to make bread for the Tembari children. He was showing the mothers how to make bread using yeast.

APH rolling the dough.

APH has just made a long dough sausage, which would be cut into small pieces soon.

APH cutting the dough sausage into pieces after which it would be shaped into buns.

Shaping the cut dough into buns.

The makeshift oven being fired so it would achieve the required baking temperature.

APH preparing to shove the prepared dough into the oven.

The dough in trays as it sits inside the oven chamber, ready for baking.

APH with the freshly-baked buns – ready to serve.

Penny distributing the freshly baked buns to the 12 children who missed last Saturday’s special lunch.



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A chat with the deputy US Ambassador to PNG

By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
A Friend of Tembari Children

ON FRIDAY morning, I had a chance to meet Paul Berg, the deputy US ambassador to Papua New Guinea, at his office at the US Embassy in downtown Port Moresby.

It was an appointment his staff Stacey arranged a few days earlier. She told me Mr Berg wanted to see me in person and talk to me about something that interested him most. I did not want to miss this meeting

You see, Paul is a good friend of the wife of Parker Borg, a very good friend of mine.

Parker was my teacher in English and Literature in high school in 1960-62. He was then a young American Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) sent by the Kennedy administration to the Philippines. I

In fact, he was among the very first PCVs the US government deployed all over the world as part of the government’s outreach program to under-developed countries – and that included the Philippines.

Parker descended on our small fishing-and-mining community called Jose Panganiban, in Camarines Norte in the Bicol region, Philippines, and settled there for two years.

I was one of his favorites. He edited-mangled the very first poem I had ever written for the school newspaper. Because of that, I decided to become a journalist although I earned my degree in accountancy.

Anyway, Parker went on to become a diplomat and later became the US Ambassador to Mali, then to Iceland. He was supposed to be assigned next to Myanmar (then Burma) but the US Congress blocked his ambassadorial posting because of the country’s human rights sins.

Himself an educator, Parker was appointed Diplomat in Residence for the American University in Rome (AUR) from 2005 to 2008, and then to Paris, at the American University in Paris (AUP) until now. During the 60s, he was on a diplomatic mission to Malaysia and Vietnam where he learned the language of both countries.

After we communicated briefly in the middle 80s, I lost him, but got connected with him again about two years ago. Then we drifted apart again but resumed exchanging email again just a few months ago.

Learning of my involvement with the Tembari Children, Parker immediately called Paul Berg from Paris and told him about my connection to him (Parker).

Parker also told Paul about my activities with the Tembari children, aside from being a journalist based in Port Moresby.

Meeting me on Friday morning, Paul told me that he has read all my blog postings at
www.tembari.blogspot.com and was amazed by the passion that I have for the children’s welfare.

Now, he wanted to hear first hand my Tembari story.

I told him.

Soft-spoken as he is, Paul told me frankly that the US government resources for such programs like the ones the Tembari Children Care center is involved with are “disappointingly small”.

But anyway, he would enjoy talking with me about my Tembari project.

Paul said there might not be much the US Embassy could do, but he may be able to offer some ideas about local groups or NGOs operating in PNG.

In his recent email to me, Parker said: “I will continue to reflect on other possible sources of assistance, but Paul will probably have more interesting ideas than I might.”

For me, Paul’s having interest in what I do for the Tembari children is more than enough.

Here’s a guy who would be in the country for a limited time only and would move on according to the wishes of his government but found the Tembari children his new personal focus which could last even after his time in the country is up.

I have always marveled why it has to be a non-Papua New Guinean that should feel the concern for the unfortunate children like the Tembari kids and not the ones from their own people, race and blood.

Reflecting on it more deeply, I realized the reasons are varied, and most of them tainted with aversion to share and to be of help to the needy.

This is one of my disappointments with Papua New Guineans.

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PNG Concrete Aggregates, Hideaway Hotel are new Timbari Children’s supporters

Totoy, Hayward Sagembo, TCC president, and Engr Joe Buenaventura discussing how to install the water tank facility.

By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
A Friend of Tembari Children


YESTERDAY, a mini-truck loaded with 100 pieces of hollow (cement) blocks came to The Center. Then another one arrived, this time carrying two cubic meters of fine sand.

I asked the first driver as to who sent for the materials and he told me: “Don Manaloto of Hideaway Hotel …”

Yes! I remember Don, the Filipino-expat general manager of Hideaway ... I talked to him a year ago at Hideway during the Hatid-Saya 2009 fundraising dinner-concert sponsored by the Filipino Association of PNG (FAPNG) which was held at the hotel.

Then, I realized that Don is also the general manager of the PNG Concrete Aggregates, a company which operates a people-and-environmentally-friendly sand-and-gravel quarry at 12 Mile outside of Port Moresby.

He sent the materials in partnership with two other Filipino-expatriates who are also helping the Tembari Children – Johnny Ala, owner of the ABC Builders and New Zealand-based construction engineer Joe Buenaventura. Joe is overseeing the two building projects at the Holiday Inn compound for the New Zealand-based construction company Canam Construction.

Joe bought the materials from PNG Concrete Aggregates and Don gave them at a giveaway price as the company’s assistance to The Center.

The cement bricks and sand and those cement bags and timber that Joe also bought will all go to the water facility project at The Center. They will be delivered this week.

I felt great. This project that I have been working on for The Center is gradually moving on.

This facility consists of a 1,000-gallon water tank, a connection of the access pipe to the water mainline at the settlement and a toilet-and-bath for the children.

The water tank and its attachments were donated by RH Foundation, the charity arm of RH (PNG) Group, while the expertise to install this –plumbing, carpentry and all will be provided by Joe and Johnny.

During the recent Hatid-Saya 2010 fundraising dinner-concert at Hideaway, Joe told Don about the Tembari Children who happened to be one of the two beneficiaries of the fundraiser. The other one is the Pediatrics Wards of the POM General Hospital.

“Did you know that the Tembari Children is Freddie’s project?” Joe said, referring to me.

And Don remembered, having talked to me last year about a possible news item that I intended to write for the business section of The National where I work.

Don, who is one of the advisers to the present leadership of FAPNG headed by businessman Joey Sena, immediately took interest in helping The Center.

Talking to me on the phone tonight, Don had asked a lot more questions, trying to find out how his two organizatons – the PNG Concrete Aggregates and Hideaway Hotel -- could fit in.

In fact, knowing that The Center is a day care and orphanage facility which now looks after 97 orphaned, unfortunate, abandoned and neglected children, Joe said he could send several mattress beds for the children.

He said that he is now in the process of renovating their bedroom facilities at Hideaway and he did not want to waste a lot of items, including beds.

But then I explained that our children go home to their foster-parents/guardians for the night and come back the next day for their preschool activities, and more importantly, for the day’s feeding.

Learning about the special Saturday lunch that I cook for the children, Don has offered to cater at least once a month for the children’s lunch -- to save me the trouble of cooking one weekend.

Which is really great!

Don also wanted to treat the Tembari Children to a weekend outing to his company’s quarry at 12-Mile, which has become a picnic ground for some friends in the city.

He developed the area into such a facility as his commitment to protect the ecology around the quarry grounds.

But the biggest news for the Tembari Children is that Don has committed his two companies’ support towards their upbringing into good members of the community, and to help them become good citizens of Papua New Guinea.

Don told me: “If there’s something the Tembari Children need, please go straight to me …”

My children – 97 of them – need a lot of things that would help them live a normal life. I have already assigned several of them to potential donors.

Now, should any one of them decide not to give, or is unable to provide the requested item, Don could expect a call from me.

To sum it all, the continuing inflow of help the Tembari Children are receiving from generous individuals and entities is awesome.

And quoting retired priest Fr John Glynn, operator of WeCaRe!, a funding NGO in Port Moresby, he told me in a recent email: “Comparing the assistance that the other feeding programs (13 in all) in Port Moresby are getting with what the Tembari Children get, I am just speechless …”

Besieged for more funding assistance by mothers who are operating feeding programs in and outside of Port Moresby, Fr John knows what he is talking about.

Delivery truck helpers unloading concrete bricks sent by PNG Concrete Aggregates.

A delivery truck from PNG Concrete Aggregates tipping over sand material to be used in installing the water tank facility at The Center.

The water tank is shown next to the concrete bricks and empty oil drums.

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