The Tembari Kids, Marina and the Digicel Foundation

By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
A Friend of Tembari Children


ON Wednesday, the Tembari children received visitors from Digicel and Myanmar, whose coming was initiated by Digicel Foundation.

The Digicel executives from overseas units came with business executives from Myanmar who could be possibly looking at the operations of PNG’s No. 1 cell phone network.

I can assume that the Myanmar delegation would like to find out if Digicel could also come in to their country as a cell phone provider.

But the foundation’s CEO, Marina Van der Vlies, has always seen to it that their foreign guests would also have to see how the Digicel Foundation works around the country.

And the Tembari Center is one convenient place for them to see in Port Moresby, one place which is worthwhile to spend their time on.

But whatever it was, I will leave it that way.

The Digicel Foundation, since its founding, has been very active in promoting the cause of its beneficiaries around the country.

One of them is the Tembari Children Center (TCC) which was given last year two units of community learning centers (CLS) to boost its preschool program.

The CLCs are actually classrooms fashioned out of junk container vans. After being appropriately fitted out, a unit would easily cost K15,000.

The CLC classroom scheme is brilliant. It could easily be transferred to a friendly location should the landowners in the area where it has been installed decided to harass the foundation in their hope that they could rip it off it for money.

But as far as the CLCs at Tembari Center is concerned, their tenure is safe since the property where the facility operates is covered by a 99-year lease, in the name of the Tembari Children Care (TCC).

Thanks to the foundation, which is being actively fronted by Marina, The Center is able to provide early education to our 45 children, who are orphans, neglected, abandoned and unfortunate.

Last Wednesday’s visit was another red-letter day for The Center, which is right now experiencing a steady growth in terms of support from benefactors and in acquisition of basic facilities.

Maybe because of the fast-paced developments at the center, thus leaving the rest of Digicel CLCs around the country by miles, Marina finds it worthwhile to bring VIPs to Tembari Center once in a while for a quick look-see.

It appears to me now that The Center is gradually becoming a showcase for Digicel Foundation’s program to bring education to the grassroots.

The early training that The Center provides to its preschoolers through the three volunteer teachers is doing wonder in their disposition and spirits.

Our preschoolers, along with the rest of the 52 children under our care, are now finding sense in their lives.

And this is what The Center is all about.

In an email to me yesterday, Marina provided some more details of the foreign executives’ visit:

“Yes we had some visitors from Digicel and Myanmar to have a look at Digicel’s operations in PNG including the work of the Foundation.

“We showed them some different projects including the Community Learning Centre in Talai, the Womens Resource Centre in Kaugere and the mobile clinic the Digicel Foundation has funded in partnership with Foursquare church.

“They were impressed especially about the level of ownership the community has taken over their Community Resource Center and the fact that community members volunteer to teach the children, cook the food and are engaged in other CLC activities for the benefit of their community.

It is also great to see and hear that other corporates have come on board to help out and support the Tembari Children.

“The visit was really about sharing experiences and learning from each other.”

Oh yes! It was Marina who introduced me to the Tembari Children one Christmas day in 2009.

What ever happened after that between me and the children has become a beautiful, on-going story.

And I really love to tell you about it every week.


Email the writer: alfredophernandez@thenational.com.pg
jarahdz500@online.net.pg
freddiephernandez@yahoo.com

Visitors from Digicel units overseas and from Myanmar listen to the Tembari preschoolers belting out a nursery song with guitar accompaniment from Wagi, the Center’s caretaker. – Digicelpic

Fresh supply of milk for Tembari kids

By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
A Friend of Tembari Children

A DAY after I posted a blog appealing for milk donation to the Tembari children, a popular supermarket in Port Moresby immediately responded with the good news.

The store, which is part of a supermarket chain across the country, said it will provide the children with 10 cartons of fresh milk (40 125ml packs) every month, starting September.

This is a big relief on our part in terms of meeting the children’s daily milk requirement.

Since there are at present 97 of them being looked after at The Center, the new milk supply would be good for four feeding days.

With milk as a major part in the daily diet of these kids, it has become our biggest expense every week since we started the milk program last March.

A modest grant from the British High Commission in Port Moresby has enabled us up to now to buy the children fresh milk at a cost of K1,200 a month, or an average of K300 a week. The weekly buying covers at least 79 one-liter packs, or 6.5 cartons (12.5 dozens).

The milk is consumed by our children every after meal, from Monday to Friday, with four kids sharing a one-liter pack.

On the other hand, the milk that we serve on Saturday is paid for by a top executive at RH Group, who also provides the children with a monthly supply of rice.

This is on top of another batch of rice being sent to The Center every month by a lady expatriate-executive. So in short, we are sufficient with rice.

My new appeal for milk donation has become quite urgent as the monthly aid from the British High Commission will come to an end towards the final week of October.

It could be recalled that last March, the British High Com held a fundraising fun-run and all the kina raised from it went towards the benefit of the Tembari children – in the form of milk funding.

Once it’s over, The Center would no longer be able to provide the children milk every day, except on Saturday, as the regular supply from the RH Group exec goes on.

A few days ago, I relayed my concern to Suzanne Laister, executive assistant to the British High Commissioner.

However, she told me not to worry as they are looking at ways to initiate new fund raisers so the daily milk drinking would not be interrupted. She hopes they could really raise new funds once more.

Meanwhile, even with the coming of fresh supply from the supermarket, I still have to look for more donors to fill the gap after its (supermarket) supply for the month has been consumed.

With 97 kids gulping this liquid food every day, every after dinner, the 10 cartons of milk from our friend supermarket could last only for four days.

So my job as donor-coordinator does not really end here; there are still 16 feeding days to work on.

Simply said, the supermarket is providing the children with a four-day supply of flavored milk, and the RH Group exec is also supplying milk good for four Saturdays of the month, for a total of eight milk-feeding days.

We have a total of 24 feeding days in a month – Monday to Saturday. Our donors’ combined milk supply covers eight (feeding days), thus leaving 16 days milkless.

So this time, this would be my goal: To find sponsors who would cover as many days as they could of the remaining 16 dry days.

I can understand why other facilities similar to the Tembari Children Care (TCC) center have been unable to sustain their respective daily feeding programs.

They just don’t have the sustained support from benefactors like the ones we have right now.

While they just wait for donors to find them, I go out of my way, marketing the future of the Tembari children to potential supporters, donors and to those who are looking for opportunities to help.

As a self-appointed donor-chaser for the Tembari children, I could feel some pride in being able to bring together generous supporters who believe in putting up stakes in the future of these children.

But chasing food donors appears to be an endless task for me.

You know why? The kids are growing everyday; they need food everyday to sustain their growing-up.

I have to encourage our expanding circle of supporters to keep the foodstuff flowing in while profusely thanking them for the willingness they have to bleed some more for the sake of our kids.

With sustained nutrition, there’s no reason for our children not to gain weight, grow tall and grow smart.

And what’s more, they are also gaining self-confidence, something they never had when they were in the streets as they desperately looked for food -- and home.

Email me for comments: alfredophernandez@thenational.com.pg
jarahdz500@online.net.pg
freddiephernandez@yahoo.com

Filipino Association of PNG, Super Value Stores (SVS) to help the Tembari Children

By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
A Friend of Tembari Children


THE Filipino Association of PNG (FAPNG) and the Super Value Stores (SVS) are going to support the Tembari Center in bringing up the 97 children now under its care.

Businessman Joey Sena, who is serving his second term as president of FAPNG, told me they have agreed to set aside some funding to The Center from proceeds of a concert dubbed “Hatid Saya” (Courier of Fun) to be held on Sept 25-26 to mark Papua New Guinea’s independence day.

The forthcoming concert featuring known Filipino entertainers aims to raise funds for its various activities and for charitable groups like the Tembari Children Care (TCC).

Joey said FAPNG is happy to support the cause that The Center is pursuing towards its beneficiaries that included orphans, abandoned, neglected and unfortunate children.

Last year, FAPNG raised money to support police operations in keeping law and order in Port Moresby.

Lina Hanafi, whose family operates SVS supermarket chains in the country, has noted the modest success that The Center has achieved over the last eight months in effecting a change in the lives of the former street children under its care.

She told me in an emailed message that her company could help us with some of our urgent needs.

The daily operations of The Center are being funded by modest grants from donors.

Every month, the facility spends about K1,500 for water bills, foodstuff like biscuits and vegetables, allowances of volunteer teachers’, volunteer mothers and volunteer caretaker.

The Center collects water from a village tap operated by the village’s association several meters from The Center.

Sometimes, The Center would also shoulder its schoolchildren’s bus fares in going to their schools in the city when their guardian parents did not have money.

This year, The Center looks after 42 schoolchildren enrolled in 11 schools around Port Moresby. It also has 45 preschoolers at The Center being taught alphabet and numbers by three volunteer teachers.

Towards the end of September, the British High Commission in PNG’s grant to The Center for its daily milk feeding program would come to an end.

The High Commission is spending K1,200 a month for the milk needs of the children from Monday to Friday. The assistance began last March.

The milk served every Saturday is being provided by another donor.

For the past seven months, fresh milk has become an important part of children’s daily diet. Milk has done a great job in improving their nutrition.

Under our milk program, four children would share a pack of one-liter fresh milk. So everyday, they consume about 24 liters of fresh milk.

It’s only because of generous individuals and institutions that The Center is able to offer them this very important food.

For this reason, I am appealing to individuals or groups for help in sustaining the daily milk needs of our 97 children.

Without their support, the Tembari children would be deprived of the many health benefits from this great food.

Preschoolers enjoying themselves inside their classroom while waiting for lunch to be served last Saturday. Lunch was catered by a kai-kai shop at Erima owned by a Malaysian couple.

Catered food in several trays donated by Malaysian expatriate businesswoman Vinns, owner of a kai-kai shop at Erima.


Email: alfredophernande@thenational.com.pg
jarahdz500@online.net.pg
freddiephernandez@yahoo.com

Saturday’s sumptuous lunch at The Center

By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
A Friend of Tembari Children

THE good news is that there were six people who donated food to the Tembari children last week.

We will refer to them by their first names: Vinns (Malaysian), Manas (Indian), Mussi (Malaysian), Albert (Filipino), Thomas (Asian) and Ilma (PNG-Australian).

And their food assistance went into the cooking of a special lunch for the children last Saturday.

For instance, Vinns, whose family operates a kai-kai (fast-food) shop at Erima (at a shopping compound behind J Mart), cooked the day’s main treat which included rice, beef stew, lamb stew, veggies, breaded chicken wings and rice.

Manas’ contribution consisted of ingredients for a curry potato-beef stew recipe that I cooked at The Center. It also came with a bag of rice and 15-liter chocolate ice cream that proved to be a big hit among our kids.

Albert’s treat was in the form of a special soup – potato soup – cooked in 30-liter pot. This dish took me more than an hour to cook as it took so long to boil.

Mussi sent in rice in a 20kg bag, thus boosting our food stock for the next several days.

Ilma sent four containers of purified water processed by her company, The Water Company. As soon as cool drinking water was set up, the children immediately fell in line, showing the big thirst they had that day.

Thomas, general manager of a fish-export company, sent 20kg of frozen banana prawns last Friday. He told me that prawn is packed with protein and that it would do great to the Tembari children.

This prawn would be cooked in coconut milk and curry for the daily weekday feeding.

Actually, Thomas sends every Friday a carton of frozen fish which we cook the next day. The banana prawn donation was a special one.

So, yesterday lunch was really plentiful and delicious and many of the children had two or three big helpings of the wonderful dishes.

Yesterday’s special Saturday lunch was capped with a serving of chocolate ice cream in a wafer cone.

It was one of the rare experiences with food that they would hardly forget.

That’s why the kids have always looked forward to Saturday – there would always be nice lunch treat every time

But this won’t be possible without sponsors who pay for the ingredients that go into the cooking of this special dish. Every week, two sponsors would chip in K150-K200 each to cover lunch for our 97 children.

And as always, I am always delighted to cook for them.

I know that my Saturday dishes are setting them off towards having a healthy body and a happy disposition in life.

Penny Sagembo, founder of The Cente (left), taking delivery of catered food yesterday, while Jeremy, staff of the kai-kai shop which donated the food, assists them

Volunteer mothers serving steaming potato soup to the children as the first item on their special lunch last Saturday.

Potato soup is boiling wild in a 30-liter pot last Saturday.

Hands shooting up as soon as ice cream serving is announced last Saturday.

Wagi topping up the water cooler with purified water sent by The Water Company Ltd, a weekly donor of purified water.

Wagi serving the children ice cream in wafer cones.

Wagi, The Center’s caretaker, preparing cordial drink donated by Coca-Cola Amatil.

An older child helping out a younger one wash her hands just before the potato soup is served.

Kids enjoying a sumptuous lunch of beef stew, lamb stew, breaded chicken wings, veggies, potato soup and cordial drink.

Kids enjoying their chocolate ice cream.

Children having a desert of chocolate ice cream after finishing lunch.


Email me: alfredophernandez@thenational.com.pg
jarahdz@online.net.pg
freddiephernandez@yahoo.com

At The Center, we are family

By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
A Friend of Tembari Children

THE other Saturday, I was startled to find out that we had more than 100 children who came for the special lunch.

Wagi, the volunteer caretaker, told me he just counted 110 kids who were about to be served lunch.

We have 97 in our official roster of beneficiary children, a big jump from the 78 when I first came to The Center last January.

How come? I asked him, a bit dismayed, knowing that the food I just cooked that day would be shot.

It was supposed to cater for only 97 and the 13 kids who gate-crashed would upset the food on the table.

Hayward Sagembo, the president of Tembari Children Care (TCC), explained to me later.

“Our older kids here at The Center have friends in the village who are street children … they are their peers, they are their buddies.

“And when they are out there, they talk about what they do at The Center and the most common topic would be the food that they would have every day.

“And our children would be proud enough to invite them to come for food, something we usually understood because this is how kids within a peer group behave … they look after each other.”

Hayward said the food The Center serves to the children everyday is drawing them to The Center, although they belong to another facility at the settlement.

This facility is supposed to provide them similar services, he said.

“But the problem is that they cannot provide the services, especially the food that we normally provide our beneficiary children.

“They may have money from donors for this purpose but they don’t deliver the service they are expected to provide, especially an honest-to-goodness and efficient feeding program.”

Whatever happened to the money is everybody’s guess, Hayward said.

“And being here at The Center with their buddies, these street children feel at home …which they don’t feel in the other facility … that’s why they come to join us.”

Indeed, at The Center, we are family. We do our best to give them the feeling of belongingness -- of being among the rest of the kids who have considered the facility as their day home.

Their own home, the one where they live with their guardians, is actually just a stopover place for the night.

The next day, they would be back to The Center to get preschool education from our three volunteer teachers and to have food twice a day – lunch snack and early dinner at 4-5pm. Food like this is not available at home.

While the rest go to their respective elementary schools around Port Moresby and come home to The Center after classes – to have food.

When “uninvited guests” come to The Center during our especial Saturday lunch, we always face the simple problem of how to deal with the situation.

Do we drive them away? It is a cruel thing to do.

Right now, we have SOP – after knowing that we have gatecrashers, we immediately segregate our children.

Since they are our priority, they are served lunch first.

If there’s extra food, and thanks God there has always been, then the gatecrashers would get theirs.

Driving them outright from our premises would be cruel. So, we have to slow down by waiting until every beneficiary child is served food.

Many guardian parents who, long time ago, dismissed the Tembari Children Care faciltiy as a fly-by-night affair are now realizing that The Center is serious in its job of making changes in the lives of its beneficiary children.

The other facilities in the community which are operated by known, well-funded groups where they have earlier enlisted their children have miserably failed them.

They did not get the services promised them when they were being convinced during those days to join the facility.

One proof they see everyday at Tembari Center is the consistency of our feeding activities, and the passion that comes with it, which take place every day, from Monday to Saturday.

The Center serves the children rice, protein food, veggies, fresh milk and cordial drinks. For snacks, they are served biscuits and cordial drinks. These are foodstuff unheard off at the other facilities.

Not to mention the preschool education that the younger children receive everyday

Why are we able to do these?

The answer is quite simple: Our benefactors trust us, one reason they keep on sending their support in the form of foodstuff, materials and on occasions, funds, to help us in our effort of helping the children find sense in their miserable life.

And every week, I would welcome new supporters who have learned about the stories of our beautiful children; they have realized that helping them is one opportunity they have been looking for.

This is one big factor that makes The Center miles ahead of similar facilities in Port Moresby.

We have entrusted the future of our children in the hands of our benefactors who are just too careful not to drop it.

Children playing while waiting for lunch last Saturday.


Children browsing book readers as they waited for lunch to cook. The books are donated by the Rotary Club of Port Moresby.

Penny Sagembo, The Center’s co-founder, marking newly-purchased tin cups used in serving fresh milk and cordial.

Penny leading the preschoolers in singing nursery songs while waiting for lunch to be served.


Email: alfredophernandez@thenational.com.pg
jrahdz500@online.net.pg
freddiephernandez@yahoo.com

Tembari kids urgently need biscuits

By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
A Friend of Tembari Children


DURING the past several weeks, biscuits have become a major part of our preschool children’s diet especially at noon.

This is because we have changed the format of our feeding program.

Before, we served them a lunch of rice, veggies and tinned fish, cordial drink and fresh milk.

This meal is now being served as early dinner (4-5pm) for our preschoolers along with the bigger children who attend classes in 11 elementary schools in Port Moresby.

These days, we serve our 45 preschoolers biscuits shortly after finishing their morning classes by noontime. We call it lunch snacks of biscuits and cordial drink.

Each kid is usually served a pack of three-piece biscuit, something that is quite heavy in their tummy and enough to last them till the next meal – early dinner – is served.

This means, we have to buy 45 packs of three-piece biscuits everyday. If the food is low in supply, they would be served only two pieces of biscuit each.

And at a cost of about one kina per pack (it’s the cheaper variety), this amounts to K45 a day. Again, just like the daily cordial drink expense, it’s difficult for us to sustain this affair.

But it is a must for the children to have biscuit snacks after morning classes, or else they’d be famished while waiting for early dinner.

You may ask why shifted the rice meal to early dinner.

I tell you. Our children at various schools in the city would start coming home to The Center at round 2pm. By about 3pm all of them --- some 42 schoolchildren – would be home and are tired and hungry for food.

They don’t go home yet. They come straight to The Center because they know food is waiting for them. At home, they could expect nothing.

Together with our preschoolers who had their noontime biscuit snacks, the older children will have their dinner, after which they go home.

Now here is the story: The early dinner would serve as their food overnight till they return the next morning to classes at The Center and to those in city schools.

This is because when they go home to their guardian-parents (remember, they are orphans, abandoned and so on …) they expect no food in the house at dinner, as their guardians are also hard-up to be able to afford to buy food for the night.

Thus, the early dinner of rice and tinned fish.

Giving our beneficiary children two meals a day – noontime biscuit snacks and early dinner – is quite an achievement as far as The Center is concerned.

This is not being done in most facilities that conduct feeding program. Many of them are unable to sustain for lack of food to give their wards, and for lack of support. Or maybe, even if they have money for feeding, it is not being spent as intended by their donors.

Twice-a-day feeding has been going on at The Center, thanks to our generous benefactors who have seen the needs of our children.

But the biscuit issue is quite new and it is only in this space I am informing our supporters that we have pressing concern that greatly affects our preschool children.

Biscuits keep the children up till the next meal at early dinner is served.

We need some help on this one.

Please send our preschoolers the biscuits that would go down with their cordial drinks.

It is food they could hardly afford to miss after classes.

Meantime, we really have to struggle with our modest funding just to feed them adequately everyday.


Toddlers wash their hands just before they are served lunch last Saturday.

Some packs of fresh milk being readied for serving to the kids after their lunch on Saturday. The daily milk of the children is being paid for by two benefactors


Email me: alfredophernandez@thenational.com.pg
jarahdz500@online.net.pg
freddiephernandez@yahoo.com

Holiday Inn, Coca-Amatil, Rotary Club POM and Hi-Lift join growing rank of our benefactors

By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ
A Friend of Tembari Children

THIS past week, three corporate entities and a rotary club joined The Center’s growing rank of our benefactors.

Hotel expert Holiday Inn POM, beverage giant Coca-Cola Amatil PNG, brokerage (trucking) firm Hi-Lift and the Rotary Club of Port Moresby have found merit in supporting Tembari Children’s Care’s (TCC) thankless job of attempting to effect positive change in the lives of its beneficiary children.

Right now, we have 97 kids under our care and as they grow in number, the pressure of putting up with their everyday needs also grow.

The first effect of an increase in the number of mouths to feed would show on our food supplies.

While we have relatively sufficient supply of rice that makes us able to feed them lunch everyday from Monday to Saturday, our capability to feed a number more than we have budgeted for is one challenge we now confront.

When two individual donors decided to provide us rice on a monthly basis, and from their own pockets at that, they did so based on the food budget that I had presented them, trying to justify the amount of food I requested.

And this was sometime last March when we had only 78 beneficiaries. Since then, the picture has drastically changed.

And over the last eight months, it appears that more and more street children are popping up at ATS Oro Settlement where The Center operates.

TCC is aware those kids need to be plucked out of their predicament. It wanted them in but its resources could only support a limited number.

I have maintained my stand whenever I discussed with Hayward Sagembo, TCC president, our food resources that we can only take a maximum of 100 kids. For now.

Beyond this, would be trouble. I would have to do a lot of explaining to our food donors why we should experience food shortage when what they send every month should be more than enough to feed them.

We have to reconcile our wish to help more street kids with our ability to manage our limited food supply and this one is a tough balancing act.

CCA last week came on board, after a month of waiting for the company to come down with a decision to donate its cordial drink product.

Aware of my growing impatience why the management had taken so long to decide whether or not to give to Tembari children, CCA’s national marketing manager Louise Maher explained that the process involving donations to charity group usually is usually lengthy, something that has to get through layers of management red tape.

The company wanted to ascertain that the donation goes to where they should. In fact, early last month when I lodged my request, Louise asked me to show proof of our legitimacy. And I showed her.

CCA’s modest assistance comes in the form of cordial drink. Over the next three months till November, the Tembari children will receive a regular supply of 8 cartons of cordial drinks a month under the brand name Golden Crush, particularly the new products the company is now promoting nationwide.

This quantity would be a big relief as far as our daily petty cash fund is concerned over the next three months. I explained to Louise that six days a week, the children would consume a total of 24 liters of cordial, costing us at least K107 a week for a total of K430 plus every month.

This amount, which is quite too big for us to sustain every month, could go to other things that The Center would need to improve its operations.

Holiday Inn’s financial comptroller Sean Craig said that his company would help us with some of our urgent needs. Immediately, I presented him four items that we badly need – items that we would have to install at The Center as soon as power service is installed at its premises.

PNG Power is now working the power line extension that will link The Center to the village power facility.

Sean said he finds the items workable. But of course, he has to present the request to management for evaluation as they would cost money.

Knowing my justification for each of the items being requested as Holiday Inn’s corporate donation, Sean said he wished the management would accommodate.

The Rotary Club POM through Hi-Lift Ltd, a trucking company servicing cargoes loaded and unloaded at the Port Moresby port area, has donated two boxes of children’s books – those illustrated readers that a kid would enjoy browsing.

A delivery truck driver at Hi-Lift who happens to live at the settlement told her boss, Susan Chan, director-owner of the firm, about the Tembari children, particularly the preschoolers numbering 45.

Ms Chan quickly remembered two boxes of books that the Rotary Club imported from Sydney which were just lying at the company’s storage room. The children's books came from various public libraries in Sydney and had been imported for distribution to charitable groups looking after unfortunate children.

Having delivered it yesterday (Saturday), Susan thought she would like to do more to help improve the plight of the Tembari children.

Luckily, I was at The Center when it came and was happy to receive the two boxes of books.

If you think you have something already discarded but could be of use to our children, please don’t hesitate to donate it.

It’s one way of relieving your home of pollution caused by the piling up of many unwanted belongings you love to hoard.

To Coca-Cola Amatil, Holiday Inn POM, Hi-Lift and Rotary Club-POM, thanks a million for considering us as worthy of your help.






Wagi (center), The Center’s caretaker-volunteer, serves cordial drinks to the children shortly after lunch on Saturday.

Hayward Sagembo, TCC president, showing off some of the children’s book readers donated by the Rotary Club of Port Moresby through Hi-Lift Ltd.

Children show off the new book readers donated by the Rotary Club of POM through trucking firm Hi-Lift Co owned by Susan Chan while waiting for lunch to be served on Saturday.

Children brows the book readers while waiting for lunch to be served on Saturday.


Email me: alfredophernandez@thenational.com.pg
jarahdz500@online.net.pg
freddiephernandez@yahoo.com