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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Pentair Foundation joins us in transforming lives!

Friends of Ngong Road is pleased to announce it has received a $15,000 grant from the Pentair Foundation. â€œThe generous grant from the Pentair Foundation will allow us to ensure all children in our program have access to education, safety and well-being services, and a supportive community. It will help children with so many barriers to education gain access to the tools and resources to transform their lives through education,” says Lacey Kraft, Development Director.

Pentair Foundation Logo

Pentair, a diversified global manufacturer, aims to improve the quality of life of people around the world by helping its customers produce more food, energy, and efficiency from each drop of water while protecting people and the environment. The Pentair Foundation supports this mission through philanthropic efforts focused on providing greater access to clean, safe water and food, investing in sustainable agriculture to increase food production, promoting STEM education, and supporting the communities where its employees live and work.

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Dr. Sally Kenney joins Friends of Ngong Road Board of Directors

Friends of Ngong Road has added an educator to its board of directors. A native of Iowa, Sally J. Kenney earned a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Iowa, a B.A. and M.A. in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics from Magdalen College, Oxford, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Politics from Princeton University.  From 1989-1995, she held a joint appointment in Political Science, Women’s Studies, and Law at the University of Iowa.

  She served on the faculty at the University of Minnesota’s Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs from 1995-2009 where she also directed the Center on Women and Public Policy. She joined Tulane University in 2010 as the first Newcomb College Endowed Chair, the executive director of the Newcomb College Institute, and a Professor of Political Science.  The Newcomb College Institute is an interdisciplinary, academic center whose mission is to educate undergraduate women about leadership.  In that role, she pioneered a service learning summer program to bring Tulane students to NRCF’s annual camp.  Last year, she led three students.

Sally’s research interests include gender and judging, judicial selection, feminist social movements, women and electoral politics, the European Court of Justice, exclusionary employment policies, and pregnancy discrimination. Her latest book is Gender and Justice: Why Women in the Judiciary Really Matter (2013).  She has close relationships with the Kenyan Women’s Judges Association.  Her current research focuses on sexual assault on campus and women’s leadership.  She also studies Swahili.

Sally has been to Kenya four times, first in 2011, as a sponsor of Sharon. In the intervening years, she sponsored three children and met NRCF students through camp participation in 2015 and 2016. Sally and her husband Norman Foster have no children of their own.  Sally met Emmanuel Jal, a former child warrior who runs a program for Sudanese orphans in Kenya last summer. Jal believes that Sudan has a proverb that whoever takes in an orphan will never feel lonely in old age. Sally feels fortunate to be involved in this project, which now has 400 children, she feels like they are her own

In the Illumini Podcast, Steve Kotvis interviews Sally about how volunteers bring their unique talents to Friends of Ngong Road and Ngong Road Children’s Foundation. Sally explores sponsor connections’ value in Ngong Road Children’s Foundation program, highlighting insightful findings.

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Volunteers at Camp 2017

Have you ever considered traveling to Kenya? Do you enjoy working with kids? Were you ever a camper? Volunteers at camp are needed.

Each year, volunteers from both the U.S. and Kenya join us at camp to enrich campers’ experiences. Volunteers participate in daily activities and use their unique skills to teach classes, run new and creative games, and share life experiences with the kids. There is plenty of room for creativity and fun.

This year, Emily Gleason and Turner Cobden are offering a $1,000 partial travel grant for camp. The grant will be awarded to the candidate they believe will best contribute to the holiday camp and to the mission of the charity. Apply by April 7 to be considered. We invite you to learn more about camp and the travel grant online or by contacting Tom Gleason at tom@ngongroad.org.

Camp 2017 runs from August 12 to August 25 in a beautiful, rural part of Kenya near Mt. Kenya. The location provides students with a once-a-year chance to escape the busy, noisy city. It is the student’s favorite part of being in the program, and you could be a part of it!

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Notes from Paula- NRCF Changes

Talented people are the heart of any organization and until this year, Friends of Ngong Road relied almost entirely on the talents of volunteers to handle our work. By the end of 2015, our board concluded we have simply grown to the point that our all-volunteer model had run its course, so we have begun to add paid staff who help with some very important jobs.

Lacey Kraft began working as the Director of Development in January 2016 – our first full-time employee. Although her focus is on development, Lacey has contributed to many projects from updating the website to the newsletter to sponsor renewals. Lacey most recently served in a similar capacity for a domestic abuse shelter in Grand Forks, ND. During her undergraduate years at the University of Minnesota, she spent a semester studying in Kenya where she first became acquainted with Ngong Road Children’s Foundation. Lacey has brought great energy and expertise to the organization and we are thankful for her contributions.

We are also deeply grateful to Jil Bakko. Jil has worked part-time for several years on Friends of Ngong Road’s accounting and audit preparation. She reconciles our accounts, prepares for our annual audit, and ensures our U.S. financials are accurate.

In 2016 we made big changes at Ngong Road Children’s Foundation (NRCF) in Kenya. Our new board chair is Rajpreet Bains. Rajpreet is a human resources professional, having worked for several corporations both in London and Nairobi. She has her own Human Resources consultancy in Nairobi focused on organizational development. Rajpreet has helped fortify governance in Kenya, recruiting new board members, articulating priorities, and ensuring a much more active role for the board of directors of NRCF. Rajpreet and her colleagues are still filling out their board; when they have a full slate we will provide a profile of each of them.

Maureen Mulievi
Maureen Mulievi, Program Director

Finally, our new Program Director in Kenya named Maureen Mulievi joined NRCF in August. Maureen has brought a level of professionalism and experience in non-profit organization leadership that we have all appreciated. Before joining NRCF, Maureen was program director for a Planned Parenthood Global project that worked with women in several counties near Nairobi. She is in her mid-30s with two small children; her husband is a high school teacher.

Our organizations have already begun to benefit from the expertise and contributions of the people introduced here, both in the U.S. and Kenya.

Thanks for your ongoing support.

Paula_Signature
Paula Meyer
President, Friends of Ngong Road