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

Another milestone for Tembari children

The graduates of Tembari preschool. Of the 38 who will move to Grade 1 next January, 16 were unable to attend as they did not have the attire required for the occasion, as their guardians were unable to afford it. - Picture by AP HERNANDEZ



Blogger AP Hernandez poses for a picture with the preschool graduates. More photos after story. - Picture by TEMBARI


By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
A Friend of Tembari Children

ON SATURDAY, I felt as if I was a father of a child graduating from the preschool.

But then, I felt being more than just one father, because the 38 Tembari preschool children who hurdled their preschool education to move to Grade 1 next January, were all my children.
I have been taking care of them, alongwith TCC trio, Rishabh, Penny and Hayward; for quite sometime now, looking for people who would provide them food, money, materials, services and above all tender, loving care.

So, on Saturday, the people at Tembari were very proud.

This was because their effort to promote the well being of 100 preschoolers, 38 of whom who just graduated, and another batch 79 older children attending elementary and primary schools, had reached another milestone.

The impression from Mrs Lyneth Turia, school head mistress of Wardstrip Elementary School, about such endeavor was heartwarming.

She said: “Tembari is doing a great job of providing early education to the community’s less-fortunate school-age children and it is my duty to give them an opportunity to advance in their education -- in my school,” she said.

She said that the 38 graduates will get their slots at her school when it opens next January.

In fact, Mrs Turia has been a big fan of Tembari children, whom she began taking in since 2009, when the first batch of preschoolers moved to Grade 1.

This school year, Tembari has 100 preschoolers and 79


When the 38 new Grade 1’s enter Wardstrip next year, Tembari will be having a total of 117 learners.

“For the 2012 school year, Tembari children would be accounting for more than 10% of the total intake of Wardstrip elementary,” she said, adding that the school will have 1,085 places next year.

And for next year, our preschool would take more than 40 new learners – from families with means to educate their children and from those who don’t have, and therefore Tembari would have to look after them.

cost. Somehow we can do more for tembari children, but for more resources we need some more donors.


We are personally appealing to anybody who is able enough to
Since the number of beneficiaries have increased by 38, whose school fees would cost about K3,800 (US$1,700), on top of those who are now in the elementary and primary levels, we should be doubling our efforts to find donors to shoulder the cost. Somehow we can do more for tembari children, but for more resources we need some more donors, as per rishabh (founder) says, We need to do learn some Olympic games to tembari children that they can itentify on global level.


I am personally appealing to anybody who is able enough to fund the education of the Tembari children.

This is an opportunity for you to help these children, by taking a stake in their future.

Help us educate them.

Your input into their learning could shape the kind of persons they would be years from now.

In future, they could be one of those who would be running this nation.

We – you and me – should be concerned.

Wardstrip Elementary School Head Mistress, Lyneth Turia (left), hands over the prize to one of the preschooler's top student.

A mother scrutinizes the report card of her preschooler.

Hayward Sagembo, TCC’s Co-Founder and Director, and Penny Sagembo, TCC’s Co-Founder and Co-President, show off a clay pot dish they prepared for the graduation guests led by Wardstrip Elementary School Head Mistress Lyneth Turia.

Janet Tema, Tembari's coordinator for early childhood program, distributes the report cards to her learners.

Volunteer moms preparing lunch for the children after the graduation program on Saturday. - Pictures by AP HERNANDEZ

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

Oro children in cultural show

A GROUP of children from Oro settlement at 7 Mile outside Port Moresby will hold a cultural show as their share in the observance of the International Children’s Day.

The cultural presentation will be held at the Botanical Garden’s Picnic Point on November 26.

Numbering about 100, the children will be performing traditional dances of their home villages, which lie along the Kumusi River in Oro province.

The participants, who ages ranged from 18 and below, represented the seven districts of Oro settlement.

During the daylong cultural presentation, the quest for Miss Tembari 2012 will also be held.

Each district will have a contestant to vie for the title, who will be judged according to their performance as cultural dancers and on their replies as to why they would like to be the Queen of Tembari.

Three community leaders from the settlement and three expatriate guests will make up the judging panel.

The title winner will raise funds for the Tembari children during the year of her reign.

The cultural show also aimed to raise funds to build a Tembari Chilren’s Care (TCC) resource centre in Oro province and to support the children’s education.

Donations towards the children’s education will be highly appreciated.

Sponsored by Tembari, the even is part of the day care facility’s community outreach programme.

Gate tickets are available at K15 – adults, and K5 – children.

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

Curtain Bros delivers 20TEU container

Justin McGann walks up the hill to measure the length of the perimeter that borders the property occupied by Tembari Children’s Care at Oro community at 7 Mile outside Port Moresby.

Justin comes down from the hill, still counting the paces he made from the time he started going up the terrain. – Photos by ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ, Port Moresby, PNG.


By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
A Friend of Tembari Children


ON Saturday, a 20TEU container was delivered to Tembari.

It is a donation from Curtains Bros, an engineering giant in Papua New Guinea, with headquarters in Australia, that is involved in massive projects at various PNG LNG sites in the highlands and elsewhere.

The delivery day, Mr Cameron got in touch with us to find out where Tembari is located. And we told him.

Hearing about the place, he said he’s familiar with it. There would be no problem getting there with the goods, he assured us.

The container donation was a response to our earlier appeal for such a facility.

Earlier, Justin McGann, another executive at Curtain Bros, sent an email to say that his company would like to donate one unit, which we could use to store our foodstuff and other facilities like freezers, refrigerators, cooking wares and many others.

Until today, foodstuff donations are kept at a container that used to be a classroom that also doubles as an office, a library/reading space and of course, storage.

The whole place is a mess, with all these things sitting together in a very tight place.

At Tembari, we have been feeing the need for a decent space to work in and this could only come once another container is given to us by some kind donor.
Finally, on Saturday, the thing arrived.

And aside from sending us the container, Curtain Bros would also like to send one of its bulldozers to reclaim some square meters from the hillside that borders our paved premises.

We have started demolishing that portion of the hill so we could get some more space for Tembari premises, in preparation for the construction of a classroom building for our preschool children.

But a few hours bulldozer work had cost us a fortune – courtesy of the contractor who charged us K900 for a five-hour work. And yet the job has remained unfinished.

Mr McGann had earlier visited the Tembari premises to see for himself the extent of earthwork that would be needed once he sent us the “dozer”.

And curious about the perimeter that borders our property that covers more than 3,000sqm, he went up the hill and measured it by walking and counting the steps he made.

An experienced bushman, Mr McGann was accurate almost to the mark when he came down from the hill with his measurement.

And he told us that should we need a surveyor to prepare a map of the property that Tembari occupies, he could organize a team of surveyor quickly – for free.

In PNG, the services of a surveyor cost a fortune and a penny-less charity like Tembari would not be able to afford it.

Curtain Bros is standing by for this. Just holler them.

Thanks, Justin McGann .. thanks Rod Cameron. Thanks Curtain Bros for your generosity.

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

Filipino community adopts Tembari children this Christmas

The sing-sing group of Tembari that will perform at the Christmas part of the Filipino Association of PNG on Sunday, December 4. The children have been invited as FAPNG guests. – Photo by ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ, Port Moresby, PNG.


By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
A Friend of Tembari Children

THAT Christmas is finally here has been confirmed to me by the giant Christmas tree at the parking lot of the Vision City Megamall in Port Moresby.

And of course, the stores that have begun to fill up the first and second floor of the mall have also started dressing up their interiors in time for the Christmas holidays.

And the good news is that the Filipino community has decided to adopt the Tembari children this Christmas.

Already, the Filipino Association of PNG (FAPNG) has launched a campaign to collect old and used clothing and other goodies, which it will give as Christmas presents to the children of the Tembari Children Care (TCC), a day care facility at 7 Mile outside the city.

Starting this Monday, FAPNG will set up donation drop boxes at Vision City Hypermart, SVS supermart BS Mart and at Filipino restaurant The Point.

The goodies would be turned over to Tembari children early next month, shortly before the association holds annual Christmas party on December 4.

The party has to be held earlier as most of FAPNG members are flying home for the holidays.

At its latest meeting, the FAPNG council decided that the Pinoy’s coming Christmas celebration should involve the community instead of enjoying the day among themselves.

This way, the event would have relevance that FAPNG has been trying to achieve – to cheer up unfortunate children who, luckily, belong to Tembari.

And at the party, 10 Tembari children will be invited to meet the Filipino children –face to face. It would be a new experience for the Pinoy kids meeting their Papua New Guinean counterparts.

For its part, the 10 selected children are now practicing some traditional songs and dances that they will present to the Filipino community.

This is the first time ever a sing-song group (cultural group) would feature at the Filipino Christmas function.

I have been informed that FAPNG is considering adopting the Tembari children – for good - as a way of giving back to the community.

One reason is that if the group could focus its attention to the 200 or so less – privilege children of the facility, it would be able to witness whatever transformation they would undergo.

This way, the Filipinos would know if their assistance to Tembari is bearing fruits.

All this boils down to one important thing: That the Filipino community has taken up a big stake in the future of the Tembari children, and it wants to make sure that it is playing a vital part in changing their lives for the better.

By the way, FAPNG is headed by the new president, Rey Angeles, the proponent of the “adopt-the-Timbari Children” project.