Friends of Ngong Road

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

By 1 Comment

Eric

Eric joined the program in 2007 and was sponsored by Keith and Kathleen Kale. Since a young age, Eric has been a focused, dedicated student and has wanted to make his family proud. However, getting to where he is today hasn’t been easy.

Eric was raised by his mother. His father died when he was young. To make ends meet, Eric’s mother found occasional work near the slums such as working in a salon and making beadwork. With the work, Eric’s mother was able to rent a small two-roomed home in the slums. Home had iron sheets walls, no electricity or running water.

Eric’s mother instilled in her children a strong appreciation for education despite limited material goods.

Eric knew from a young age that his involvement in the Friends of Ngong Road Program, through which he gained access to education, was his vehicle to a transformed life for himself and his family too.

Eric attended G.S.U Primary School, one of our past partner primary schools, St. Joseph’s High School, and then graduated from Kenyatta University with a Degree in purchasing.

Throughout his post-secondary career, Eric was a standout employee at Digital Divide Data, a company Friends of Ngong Road has partnered with in Nairobi with a very similar mission. They provide supplemental income and employment experience for promising secondary school graduates and have included some of our students. Eric’s role at Digital Divide Data was to transcribe handwritten articles to an electronic format for clients such as museums and libraries. In return, Digital Divide Data helped pay for some of Eric’s university tuition.

Upon graduation, Eric was promoted as a full-time Project Manager at Digital Divide Data, managing team and client interactions. He is looking for a new apartment out of the slums. He has made it into the Kenyan middle class.

His sponsors Keith and Kathleen Kale said, “We are very proud of Eric and his accomplishments. By keeping steadily on track, he was able to work his way through university and get his degree. He worked so hard and so many hours, it is inspiring. Congratulations to this fine young man.”

By 1 Comment

Elisha

Elisha was born in a rural area near the coast of Kenya where life was tough but his family was close. When he was 10, his father passed away.

Elisha moved in with his uncle’s family in Nairobi, while his brother moved to a city, six hours from Nairobi with a different uncle. His uncle’s profession was marked by its uncertainty, upon which he relied to provide for his own four children as well as Elisha. There was a shortage of food, and the availability of funds for school fees was even more limited.

In 2008, case managers from the newly launched Friends of Ngong Road/Ngong Road Children’s Foundation program visited Elisha’s school. It happened to be on a rare day that he was there with paid-up fees. His teachers advocated for his acceptance into the program and shared his story. Elisha was accepted, absolutely thrived in school, found friends in the program with similar backgrounds, and benefited greatly from the ongoing support of a case manager. Elisha said he no longer “felt odd. I just fit in.”

A few years later, when Elisha’s mother passed away, he didn’t find himself isolated in handling the heart-wrenching loss. Instead, he had the continuing support of FoNR/NRCF. Today, Elisha is studying to be a civil engineer. He dreams of making Nairobi a better place that can compete globally. He is on the way to transforming his life, his family’s lives, and the whole of Kenya.