Friends of Ngong Road

We empower Nairobi children living in poverty to transform their lives through education and support, leading to employment.

Archives for December 2022

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Join us in Africa!

Have you ever thought about traveling to Kenya (Africa) to meet your student? Do you want to experience a life-changing trip with your family or friends? Is it a dream of yours to go on a photo safari? Your dream can become a reality. Friends of Ngong Road is planning a trip to Kenya tentatively planned for August 2023 or February 2024 uniquely designed for our sponsors, donors, friends, and their families.

The itinerary will include time with students, a visit to their homes, a school tour, and time at the Saturday Program.  You will also visit our new student center, Elimu Hub. It’s a wonderful opportunity to see some Kenya national parks, African wildlife, and the uniqueness that Nairobi, and Africa, has to offer. 

Contact Naomi at naomi@ngongroad.org if you are interested in learning more. We will follow up with more details on the itinerary, timing, and costs. There will be an online information session to provide more details about the experience, answer any questions you may have, and meet fellow travelers.

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Give the Gift of Education

We know that shopping and trying to find the right gift is hard. Why not give a gift that is meaningful and makes a difference?  

Born into abject poverty, our students face more challenges than most of us can imagine. With education and support of Friends of Ngong Road, they have the opportunity to attend school, develop strong life skills, graduate, and find employment. They are often able to leave the slums and, in most cases, help others in their family. Education can not only transform a life but also end the cycle of poverty for generations.   

This holiday season, consider giving the gift of education. 

Donate in the name of someone else – spouse, child, grandchild, or friend. We will send them a card acknowledging your gift.   

Give the gift of a sponsorship. Transform the life of an individual student through the ongoing support of their school tuition and fees. You can provide the funds, and your loved one could write to the student. This is a great gift for a grandchild so that they can learn about what life is like for kids their age in another country. To gift a sponsorship this holiday season, email naomi@ngongroad.org Or call 612-568-4299.

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Class of 2022 – Covid Class

Despite the many challenges that came with the Covid-19 pandemic, the class of 2022 still pushed through, and were all able to successfully transition from High School (Secondary) to Post-Secondary. This particular cohort was supposed to finish their Secondary education in December 2021 when they were to sit for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exams. This however did not happen because of the pandemic. Students’ home stay affected school calendar for entire year.They, therefore, sat for the exams in April 2022. 

Malcom Sam

Much had to be done in order for the students to be ready for their final exams since the schoolwork had to be rushed to create ample time for the exams. They had to study extra hours in order to finish the curriculum and this meant that they were under pressure. Despite all that, the students gave their best. For the first time in the organization, one student received an A grade! This was the record-breaking high grade for candidate, surpassing all possible achievements.

We had a total of 28 students who sat for the exam, 17 boys and 12 girls. The top performer was a boy by the name of Sam and he schooled at Agoro Sare High School in Homa Bay County. Out of the 28 students, we have 7 of them who qualified for a degree course, 14 of them qualified for a diploma course in different colleges, and the remaining 8 qualified for certificate courses. They had a life skills and career guidance session where they settled on the courses they wanted to pursue.

Some of the courses they are pursuing are technical courses such as Electrical Engineering and Information Technology. Other courses include social work and community development,  broadcast journalism, and human resource management. We are proud of their achievements so far, and we are wishing them all the best in their coursework! We express gratitude to sponsors and donors for their ongoing support during these students’ crucial life phase.   

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Waiting Students

Frankline

Frankline lives with his parents and siblings in the Kibiria ward of Dagoretti. He is from a very humble background and despite the family’s hardships, Franklin has a positive attitude toward life. He and his siblings don’t have beds of their own, and he is often sent home from school due to his parent’s inability to pay for his school fees. 

Currently he schools at  Alpha Glory Academy where he is a top performer. He loves going to school and dreams of being able to go every day. He says that getting a sponsor will solve this challenge and let him focus on getting good grades. His best subjects are Mathematics and English. Frankline aspires to become a pilot and is therefore taking his studies seriously. His parents hope to see their son finish school, be successful, and become someone of substance in society through education.

Verah

Verah is not just your average 9-year-old girl. She is very helpful especially at home so, during her free time, you will find her washing dishes or helping her younger sister. Verah lives with her parents and her younger sister whom she loves dearly. She loves spending quality time with her family. 

Verah is very disciplined when it comes to her education and performs really well in her schoolwork. She would love to be a doctor someday. This is because she finds joy in helping other people and creating an impact in their lives and their families. She yearns for success and works really hard in order to achieve all the milestones that she has set for herself. Verah’s favorite foods are chicken and fish and she knows how to prepare them!

Verah will be able to join Jagiet Academy when she gets a sponsor. This will maximize her chances of earning the title of a doctor in the future and therefore empower her.

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Notes from Paula

2022 was the first year of our 2022 – 2026 strategic plan for Friends of Ngong Road. Our headline goals in the five-year strategic plan are: 

  • to double our impact in Kenya, and 
  • transition from volunteer leadership to a sustainable staff-led model.

Double our impact. To double our impact means we must recruit more sponsors or find new ways of supporting children’s education. We knew by mid-year that this goal will be our most challenging to achieve within this strategic plan. Our goal this year was to recruit 70 new sponsorships and by the end of November, we had added 33, so we expect to be at about 50% of goal by year-end. We have formed a team to develop new tactics for increasing the number of children in the program and in 2023 you will learn more about these initiatives, some which include adding students without a 1:1 sponsor relationship. We know we are going to have to be creative and open-minded as we seek to increase the number of children getting our support in their life transformation journey. 

Hire and onboard an Executive Director. Carole Patrikakos joined Friends of Ngong Road in April, and we are all working together to transition duties from volunteers to Carole and other members of staff in a measured, effective cadence. Carole is a very experienced development professional and has a significant assignment to broaden fund-raising efforts and build a robust development program. We successfully raised a $400,000 transition fund to support our leadership transition over the next few years. I am grateful for Carole’s increasing leadership in Friends of Ngong Road, allowing me to step back from some day-to-day duties.

Prepare Infrastructure to support more students. We accomplished several important operations-oriented milestones in 2022. In Kenya, we opened Elimu Hub, a student resource center including an expanded library/meeting room and a well-equipped computer lab. We completed year two of a three-year technology transformation project, including significant data clean-up of student records and a transition to out-of-the-box SalesForce technology for case management. We have streamlined case management in Kenya and donation processing in the U.S., allowing our lean global staff to focus on value-added activities.

Enhance governance in Kenya. We have been engaged in a year-long effort to enhance committees and governance in Kenya. This will culminate with the addition of three new Kenyan board members in January 2023. We are optimistic that the growing number of capable Kenyans who are engaged in our mission will add increasing value. Our management team in Kenya is by far the strongest it has been since our inception. 

Build Employment Programs in Kenya. To accomplish our vision of life transformation, students must be educated and get jobs. In 2022, we hired a full-time, experienced professional in Kenya to help graduates get jobs. She is having a big impact, both on recent graduates and on our 183 alumni as they try to get better jobs. We launched a technology internship called TechMates and have processed about 18 recent college graduates through this internship. They learn WordPress (used to build websites) and get hands-on practical experience with our websites and working with clients. We delivered an entrepreneurial skills training pilot and will build on learnings from these new initiatives in 2023.

And finally, a word about Karibu Loo.  Launched as a pilot in 2015, Karibu Loo is a commercial portable sanitation business with two goals: to employ graduates and to donate profits to support our charitable mission in Kenya. The business faced significant challenges during the pandemic but has made great progress in 2022, landing a long-term contract with the British Army in late 2022 which will extend into 2023.  Seven of our eight full-time employees (the exception is our long-serving Business Manager) are program alumni and we have provided short-term employment to nearly 200 high school students and recent graduates. In 2023, Karibu Loo made progress on repaying past-due shared expenses to Ngong Road Children’s Foundation and in 2023 we are targeting a financial contribution equivalent to 5% of Kenya’s operating expenses. At this writing, Karibu Loo is the largest provider of portable sanitation in Nairobi.

As a supporter of this organization, I hope this helps you gain perspective on the reach of Friends of Ngong Road and Ngong Road Children’s Foundation and on our many accomplishments in 2022. In addition to the students we directly support, our work in Kenya has a direct impact on thousands of people – our employees, vendors, teachers, families of children in the program, and more. Thank you for being part of this good work!

Paula