Dear Friends, 2015 year has been a very exciting year for Friends of Ngong Road. Our board of directors has engaged in a nine-month strategic review, believing we are at a critical stage in our development. We have learned much through the work we’ve done and will complete our next strategic plan this fall.
In our 2013 – 2015 strategic plan Friends of Ngong Road committed to launching a for-profit business in Kenya. That launch took place in November 2014 and we are wrapping up our pilot project this summer.
The business is a portable toilet business called Karibu Loo. We believe this business has significant potential and will create a stream of income to support our educational mission, while also providing jobs for our graduates. Our plan is to begin scaling the business in late 2015 or early 2016. Our revised five-year pro forma suggests we will be able to raise a significant portion of our annual operating budget through this initiative by 2020. Read more about Karibu Loo in other articles in this newsletter.
We have been recruiting sponsors and sending Nairobi children to school since 2006 and are still doing so in 2015. Since its inception, our mission has been to educate children so they can transform their lives. We have defined the ultimate measure of lives transformed as employment. Our belief is that the cycle of poverty will be broken when our graduates go to work each day and earn a wage sufficient to move out of the slums. Our students are beginning to get those kinds of jobs in the formal Kenyan economy – read about some of their stories in the article titled “Transforming Lives”.
Since 2009, Tom Gleason has developed and led the camp in August of each year. Tom continues to play this role but has moved off our board of directors. In recognition of his significant contribution to NRCF children in Kenya, we have created the Tom Gleason Camp Fund in our endowment. For a gift of $1,000, you can endow a campership for one student in perpetuity (our annual cost per student is $50). We have raised $20,000 toward a goal of $200,000. Please consider endowing a student’s camp experience.
Turner Cobden has joined our board of directors and will lead our efforts to streamline operations. Turner is in his early ‘30s and, with his wife Emily, has sponsored a student since 2008. He and Emily have both participated in the camp. Read more about Turner and his perspectives on onboard service for Friends of Ngong Road in the following article.
As always, we are deeply appreciative of your ongoing commitment to helping the student you support in Kenya. In nine years, we’ve gained insights into effective education, progressing to create a sustainable organization for student development. Thank you for your support!
Paula Meyer
President, Friends of Ngong Road
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