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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Elimu Hub is open!

Elimu Hub opened on May 18. 

The Ngong Road Children’s Foundation site, which is close to Nairobi’s administrative building, is home to Elimu Hub, which is the hub for educational activities, resources, and community. In Swahili, the word “Elimu” means education.

It is enclosed by a secure wall that gives students a sense of security and protection in a volatile and occasionally violent environment. Our updated computer lab and larger library are located at Elimu Hub.
The library is an important resource center for our students as most of them are in school. Besides the books we have acquired through the years, Braeburn School donated more books that will be beneficial to our students. With this gift, we now have more books for our growing community. All this will help us to ensure that our students achieve their academic goals.

The computer lab will be helpful for our students as a tool in their education. Primary-age students from Nelson Mandela Academy take computer classes at the computer lab during the week.  Students from other primary schools take classes on Saturdays before they attend the Saturday Program.  Recent High School graduates will take their Computer classes at the computer lab taught by Belmont College. Course graduates receive a certificate, making them marketable in the job market.

We have never before had a purpose-built structure. The new Elimu Hub, constructed using six 20-foot shipping containers, is a fun and practical structure that benefits both personnel and pupils. Its completion was eagerly awaited, ensuring a positive impact on the community.

Our launch ceremony had representatives from the organizations who made Elimu Hub possible. Representatives from the Rotary Club of Kikuyu, Braeburn School, and Container 254 attended. Rotary Club of South Minneapolis Evenings and Friends of Ngong Road recognized, despite not present. The event consisted of performances from our students who presented poems and dances. We even had a taekwondo performance. 

Kelvin Thuku, our program manager, appreciated the growth of Elimu Hub, from the idea to the implementation stage and finally its unveiling. He regards it as one of the biggest achievements of the organization. He also expressed his gratitude to the collaborators for their assistance with the project’s construction and completion.

The president of the Rotary Club of Kikuyu, Ann Ichung’wa, officially launched the Elimu Hub making it ready for use by our students.

We extend our utmost gratitude to our partner organizations and all of you that contributed to our Elimu Hub campaign This project would never have happened without your support. Thank you for helping us in the process of transforming the lives of our students.   

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Lorine

Lorines’ success story is inspiring and uplifting.  As a member of the Friends of Ngong Road family, Lorine started her academic journey at Jagiet Primary School. She later did her secondary studies at St Mary’s Thigio.

She holds a certificate in Business Administration, a University diploma in Business Administration, as well as a Bachelor of Commerce with a Finance concentration from the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology.

Lorine has made steady progress in her professional life. She participated in the Ngong Road Youth Peer Provider and Sexual and Reproductive Health Program, and she interned at Karibu Loo as an associate. She is currently employed as part of their finance team.

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Emmanuel

Emmanuel joined the program in 2010. Having to pay for his education as a child was a tremendous challenge for his family. Friends of Ngong road gave him a sponsor and enabled him to continue his academic career.

We transferred Emmanuel to one of our focus elementary schools immediately after admitting him to the program. He considered it a far better school than his previous school.

After completing his primary education, he attended a boys high school in Nairobi, where he completed his secondary education and joined the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology. His graduation was originally scheduled for November last year but was postponed to July this year because of the COVID pandemic.

Emmanuel holds a Certification in Business Administration and in Business Information Technology. Emmanuel is currently interning at Ngong Road Children’s Foundation as a tech intern.

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Parents/Guardian Involvement

Parents/guardians play an important role in the transformation of a student. It is our policy that each student has a supportive parent/guardian during the child’s enrollment in the organization.

During the student selection period, the parent/guardian must fulfill several requirements. In general, they have to ensure that they provide basic needs for the children. They sign a contract agreeing to play their part in the child’s life and to support the organization in any way possible for the child’s success. The parent/guardian refreshes the contract at each level of the student’s education.

Every week, the organization holds a Saturday Program where we meet with the students and engage them in group activities. The parents/guardians must ensure that the students attend and participate. The parents/guardians also provide the organization with periodic assessment information to assess the child’s progress both at home and at school. This is a way of providing feedback to the organization on how to best support the student.

“We host an Annual General Meeting, and we expect the parents/guardians to attend.” They receive updates on the program, review their commitment to their child’s education, and are asked for their support in identifying prospective students for the program. They usually hold it at the end of the year and distribute Christmas packages of food aid to their families.

We highly appreciate all our parents/guardians for their continued effort in helping us achieve our students’ success. Their involvement contributes to the success of the students through the web of supportive adults in their lives – parents/guardians, case managers, teachers, and sponsors.

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Employment Initiatives

In 2021, Friends of Ngong Road conducted a survey of our first 113 alumni and learned that 80% of alumni had one or more jobs between May 2020 – May 2021.  This was an especially challenging time for employment due to the effects of COVID-19 restrictions on the Kenyan economy.  While encouraging to learn such a high percentage of alumni had had jobs, at the time of the survey, only 46% of respondents were employed. Among those employed 76% had a job in the formal economy. Among the unemployed, 90% had worked in the informal economy, and when COVID hit, their work disappeared.  

The new emphasis on employment, an updated mission statement

These results led our board of directors to conclude we must do better. Since our inception, we have understood that Kenya’s formal economy has very high unemployment levels (about 40%) and that this last stage of life transformation, employment,  would be the most challenging.  We have now made “employment” a fourth program pillar in our overall strategy (along with Education, Student Health & Well-Being, and Supportive Community) and updated our mission statement to reflect our increased focus on helping graduates get and keep a job.  Our revised mission statement is:

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

Programs to support employment objective 
We currently have several initiatives in place or in development that support our goal of ensuring 75% of the alumni are employed within six months of graduation.  Some of these programs begin in high schools, such as Life Skills training and learning about career options.  Other programs are focused on high school and post-secondary graduates, including:

  • Job placement through the support of the Kenyan Board of Directors who make referrals to organizations within their network.
  • Karibu Loo Associate program– Karibu Loo (KL) is a portable sanitation business (owned by FoNR) that hires our graduates as part-time associates to help with the business’s operations, learning organization skills, time management, and working as part of a team. Karibu Loo has also hired graduates for full-time roles in marketing and operations.  Since its inception, more than 120 graduates have been employed by KL.
  • Sales Academy – an intensive two-month sales training and six-month paid internship through a partnership with Yusudi Sales Academy. Two students will join this program in April as a pilot to see how successful it will be.
  • TechMates Program – A tech internship program where STEM Graduates are taken through an “on-the-job training” on digital marketing, website development, and management using WordPress, Google Ads, as well as advanced programming. The interns are later linked with external companies for contract jobs. 
  • Entrepreneurship training – Targeting alumni who are interested in starting a small enterprise by providing basic business creation training and linking them to funding opportunities. 

Elsewhere in this newsletter, you will find more information about the TechMates Program. In the next five years, we expect to launch more initiatives focused on helping graduates get jobs.  We know that when you begin life in extreme poverty the only way your life is truly transformed is if you get (and keep) a job.