Friends of Ngong Road

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

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Greetings from Kelvin

Hello Friends and supporters of Ngong Road,

Students graduate

In the second quarter of the year, the focus was on Class 8 and Form 4 (grades 8 and 12) since they did their final National exams in April 2021 and received their results. Given the Covid-19 impact on education in 2020, our students performed fairly well. For Form 4 students, 5 qualified to join University, 9 in college for a Diploma, and 11 in technical institutes for Certificate courses. For Class 8 students, eleven students scored above 300 marks while six scored below 300 out of 500. We held graduation ceremonies for these students in May. The purpose of the ceremony is to celebrate the milestone achieved as well as orient the students for the next education Journey (secondary for class 8 graduates and Post-secondary for Form 4 graduates). The students were invited together with their parents and during the ceremony, they were required to sign commitment forms for the next level of education. The class 8 graduates will be joining the secondary school in August while Form 4 graduates will join colleges and Universities in September 2021.

Move to a new office

The months of May and June were equally busy with the office move. This was necessitated by the fact the former location was a residential estate and the members were concerned about the organization’s traffic of people given the COVID-19 situation. We had to look for commercial space and our compound. We were lucky to get a spacious bungalow next to our Saturday program field where we signed a 5-year lease agreement and moved in at the beginning of June. The staff and students are excited about the new campus because of its outdoor space and welcoming ambiance. Our students have more outdoor space for training and workshops. Our staff has a conducive working space in the main house. 

Planning for Elimu Hub

We are planning to construct a student resource center at the new campus in the 3rd quarter of the year. We are naming the student resource center “Elimu Hub” which means Education Hub. You can read more about this on the website under “Elimu Hub”. 

COVID-19 effects on NRCF

Since April 2020, NRCF has monitored and assessed the effects of Covid-19 on our students and their families. Case managers reach out and interview NRCF households to monitor their situations. Here are some findings from the most recent survey completed in May 2021.

  • 95% of the households have someone working compared to 81% in October 2020 and 70% of families in August 2020
  • The income of 58% of those households has decreased due to the COVID-19 impact
  • 88% have an average home situation rating which means they have partially recovered from 2020 COVID-19 impacts
  • 77% have average support which means they have a supportive family which is important for their educational  success

Family Assessment Charts

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Greetings from Kelvin – December 2020

Greetings,

The year is coming to an end and we are excited to have survived such a difficult time given the COVID pandemic. By working together, per our theme of WePowerment, we managed the crisis. Our COVID response strategies had a good impact:

  • November was a busy time for students in the computer lab as they worked on their emails and videos to sponsors. We also continued supporting home school for students.
  • In November the caseworkers completed another round of COVID-19 assessments. From the assessments, we have noted an improvement in families returning to work. 
    • 88% of families had at least one family member working in November compared to under 70% of families in July. 
    • 24% of students have gone back to school (majority of post-secondary students, Grade 4, Grade 8, and Form 4 students), This is after the partial resumption of school in October with priority given to candidates who are about to transition to the next level of education.
  • In November we focused on an essay project. Students shared their experience reading literature books during the long school break where every month each student received a book to read. The goal is to send the essays to sponsors as a way of connecting on how students spent their time during the COVID-19 school break. You can read these handwritten essays in your sponsor portal.
  • We have continued with the Food From Friends program where we have been feeding approximately 300 families every month. In December we issued our last batch of family food aid during our Annual Gathering Meeting held on 3rd December. The families were very appreciative of the program and the support it has accorded them during such a difficult time. December is the last food issuance month as we plan to refocus on education come January 2021 when all students are expected to go back to school.

Looking Ahead- back to school plan

All students are expected to resume school on January 4th, 2021 for their second term. It will be a unique year with four terms instead of three. We are currently working on back-to-school supplies and uniforms to ensure students return to school with all they need. We have also reworked our school transportation to ensure students are transported to school in a safe and secure manner by using more private transportation, especially for students within Nairobi.

Finally, we appreciate our donors and supporters for your continued support during such a challenging time. We wish you all Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year. Together we are making a difference.

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Update from Nairobi: Food from Friends

Ngong Road Children’s Foundation’s main priority in our COVID-19 response is to focus on family food aid in Nairobi. We are calling this new initiative Food from Friends. In the course of a normal April, our program provides students with breakfast and lunch each weekday while they are on break from school as well as a hearty lunch on Saturdays during Saturday Program. We are no longer conducting these programs due to government directives on social distancing and avoiding gatherings. The children are at home with their families, many of whom are no longer working. 

We have been running the Food from Friends project where funds gathered are used to purchase food packages for families. We have approximately 300 families dependent on our program.  Each food packet contains 1 kg of beans 2kg of rice, 4kg of maize flour, and 500g of cooking fat. In the last two weeks, we have been able to issue food aid to around 200 families among which 72 of the neediest families have received food packets twice. 75% of our families have 3-5 people in a household and the food pack we give can only last them for a week. We are looking at being able to provide larger quantities of food that would last a family a month, thus minimizing the movements of parents coming for food aid every week.

Families that have received food have shared that they consider themselves so lucky to be part of this organization and so thankful for the food aid support.  

We thank our donors and well-wishers for your commitment to providing Food from Friends.  We are in this together and we shall overcome. Stay safe.

Kelvin Thuku
Program Manager
Ngong Road Children’s Foundation

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Letter from Nairobi

Currently, all primary and secondary (Form One to Form Three) students in Nairobi are on a long holiday that will end when schools resume on 6th January 2020. Grade (class) 8 students took the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exams on 31st October 2019 while the final high school examination (Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education, or KCSE) for Form 4 (seniors) began on 4th November 2019 and will end towards the end of November. Their respective schools had prepared the students to tackle both key exams confidently.

During the long holiday, the students who are not sitting for exams will be taking part in various activities ranging from life skills sessions, career guidance and counseling, sexual/reproductive health training, menstrual hygiene education, drug use, and abuse sensitization sessions, group discussions, library sessions, and computer studies. The activities will take place concurrently with each class tackling a different area. High school students will learn life skills, group discussions, sexual/reproductive health, computer studies, and career counseling and mentorship. Primary school children will enjoy the library and computer studies.

We conduct drug use and abuse sensitization sessions for the upper classes (Grades 6 to 8). Girls in the upper classes receive menstrual hygiene education. During this time, the children are happily receiving breakfast and lunch which couldn’t have been available were it not for your generosity towards NRCF. Due to extended holiday periods, we have expanded the Saturday Program to provide children with activities that enhance their talents.

We divide sessions into four broad categories that aim to foster the holistic development of children. This involves psychosocial health (yoga, cheering, singing, fun activities, brain games, talent shows, and team building). Other areas are cognitive development (arts and crafts, book reading, debates and presentations, crosswords and puzzles), and social development (clubs and societies, e.g. drama, music, scouts, dance club, journalism, and St. John ambulance). Finally, physical development (soccer, Katie, taekwondo, soccer, rugby, volleyball, handball, and athletics). On Saturdays, children also enjoy a well-balanced lunch that is part of the nutrition program.

The highlight of the holiday season is the Annual General Meeting (AGM) for all NRCF stakeholders (children, parents/guardians, local community, NRCF staff, volunteers, and board members). During this meeting, we share our achievements, successes, challenges, lessons learned, and plans for the coming year. We normally share Christmas lunch as a family on this occasion. Families get Christmas packs with chicken, maize & wheat flour, cooking oil, rice, sugar, beans, veggies, and fruit.

We have scheduled the event for December 7th, 2019, in Nairobi. This year’s AGM is special since we will be launching our new entity – Ngong Road Children’s Foundation (NRCF). We will be transitioning from an “Association” to a “Non-Governmental Organization (NGO)”. The children are excited as they look forward to the event since it will be joined by the founder and President of Friends of Ngong Road, Paula Meyer. After the celebration children normally break for the Christmas holidays. Some travel to their rural areas to celebrate with their extended families. Others remain behind to continue benefiting from what the program offers normally such as library and computer lab access.

Thank you all for creating a big impact in the lives of these once desperate and hopeless children in Nairobi who have been given an opportunity to transform their lives.

Sincerely,


Maureen Mulievi
Programme Director
Ngong Road Children’s Foundation

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Kelvin Thuku’s Trip to the U.S.

Kelvin recently returned from a ten-day visit to the U.S. Kelvin is the Programme Coordinator at Ngong Road Children’s Foundation and joined the organization in 2013 as a computer lab instructor. Today Kelvin leads our Information and Communications Technology Department, Summer Camp, and Saturday Program hence he gets to interact with all the children in the program and understand them quite well. During his visit, he was able to meet various sponsors and donors and spend time with the US-based staff. Kelvin was able to help sponsors understand the supportive community programs that their sponsored children engage in and how these programs help them in the journey of transforming their lives.

A Tight Schedule
During his time in the US, Kelvin traveled throughout Minnesota, Iowa, and Texas meeting with sponsors and donors as well as giving presentations to churches (Christ Lutheran Church of Alamo Heights and Our Saviors Lutheran Church in the San Antonio area, friends and family, and of course at our Annual Gathering and Friends of Friends fundraising breakfast. He also met individually with some sponsors and donors and gave insight regarding the students they sponsor.

Kelvin is responsible for the technology and budget planning, therefore he was able to spend time with the tech team and gain a deeper understanding of the systems that the organization is leveraging to better support operations at NRCF. He also spent time with the board member in charge of financials and controls. He also spent time with the strategic planning committee discussing the scaling plan.

In addition to these meetings, Kelvin was able to experience life in Minnesota where he visited some of the landmarks such as Stone Arch Bridge, the Minneapolis sculpture garden, and the Mall of America.  And he tried lots of new foods. He also had many opportunities for professional development working with our U.S. staff and board members and by meeting with other professional groups like the South Metro Minneapolis Evenings Rotary club and individuals like Paul Walker of Gallup to gain insight and experience.

A Great Experience
For Kelvin, the trip from Nairobi to Minnesota was a long one, but quite fulfilling since it was his first time in the US and his first trip out of Africa.

Kelvin is grateful to the organization for giving him the chance to travel to the US and get all the exposure and interaction. He is also grateful to all the sponsors and donors who spent time with him and for allowing him to share his perspectives of the program.