Do you remember how you learned about Friends of Ngong Road? Chances are, you knew someone who was involved as a donor, sponsor, or volunteer. They told you about the difference the organization was making for children in Kenya for a relatively small investment. You signed up for our newsletter, came to an event, gave a donation, sponsored a student, or started following us on social media because you believe in the mission and trust your friend or family member. Friends and family networks are the most common path for people getting involved at Friends of Ngong Road.

We are now formalizing that friends and family method with the introduction of our new Ambassador Program as a strategy for growth. Ambassadors are people who know and love Friends of Ngong Road, agree to learn more about it through ongoing learning opportunities and commit to recruiting two sponsors and raising $2,000 each year for two years. They can be of any age, background, and experience with the organization. Ambassadors are passionate about their mission, aims to change a child’s life for a small daily investment of around $2.. They believe the opportunity to change a child’s life is too important to not be spread.

A shout-out to the first four Ambassadors who started volunteering with the organization last month. They are high-energy, dedicated leaders paving the way for this program and creating more opportunities for students to join the program and transform their own lives. We thank you!

If you are interested in becoming an Ambassador, please contact Lacey Kraft at lacey@ngongroad.org or 612-568-4211.

As we begin 2019, I believe that Friends of Ngong Road and our sister organization in Nairobi are turning a corner in three ways:  

1. The program is delivering results in young lives transformed by education and employment;
2. Ngong Road Children’s Foundation in Nairobi is a dramatically more mature, effective organization than it has ever been; and
3. Friends of Ngong Road are poised to move to the next level.

We began working with the first group of children in Nairobi’s Dagoretti slums in late 2006 – twelve years ago.  That first group of sixty children is now young adults. Among the early classes of students who have successfully navigated the entire program, including Primary, Secondary, and Post-Secondary schooling. 93% today have jobs or are in internships we believe will lead to employment.  In the 2012 NRCF Plan, we dramatically strengthened our criteria for admission to the program.

We expect as these later classes of students complete their education, more and more will be eligible for government scholarships in post-secondary colleges and universities. And, we have built programs designed to bolster success through Sexual & Reproductive Health training and Life Skills training.  We are optimistic that the formula we have created will continue to work. Explore the jobs our graduates have secured through the information provided on the poster below.

In 2016, the Kenyan Executive Director’s embezzlement roiled the organization in Nairobi. We have successfully remade our Kenyan operations by outsourcing financial management to a professional firm, recruiting a very competent Kenyan board of directors to provide local oversight, and strengthening Friends of Ngong Road’s role in financial oversight and control.  Our leaders in Kenya, including the board and the new Program Director, are creating a professional, well-run Kenyan organization.

Finally, Friends of Ngong Road completed a strategic plan that includes the replacement of my volunteer-President role with that of a new, paid Executive Director and the transition of our joint organizations to one that can support even more children in the future.  More than 550 children have been affected by this program, and while a few have moved away or gotten derailed, many have become young adults with bright futures.

We have much work to do in order to continue delivering on our mission. Above all, I am most deeply appreciative of you – our sponsors, donors and supporters who have made this work possible.

In gratitude,

Paula Meyer
Founder and President

Ngong Road Children’s Foundation (NRCF) contracted with Success Signature to facilitate the Life Skills Training Program (LSTP) made possible by a Rotary Global Grant led by the South Metro Minneapolis Evenings (SMME) Rotary Club and the Kikuyu Rotary Club of Kenya. The aim of LSTP is to develop self-awareness in both secondary and post-secondary students by training them on carefully selected and essential skills that will aid in their life success.

US volunteers Meghan and Evan Feige developed the training curriculum and tested it in Kenya in early 2017 with December 2016 Form 4 finishers (high school graduates). On November 8th, 2018, at the Lutheran Church, Ngong Road, the organization officially launched the first phase of training, which lasted three weeks.

Present were 94 students (Form 2-4, grades 10-12), NRCF and Success signature staff, parents, Rotary Club of Kikuyu members. Bus fare and meals were provided to all students to ensure they could attend.

The launch brought all the stakeholders together for the introduction to the program. NRCF staff provided the background of the LSTP and the intended benefits to the students. Students got a chance to meet the facilitators. Success Signature staff explained program: topics, timetable, expectations, rules, regulations, pre-training evaluation.

The Lutheran Church on Ngong Road is located next to NRCF offices, offering convenience and ample space with suitable facilities. The training program ran daily from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm. All three Forms covered the following topics: communication, conflict management, critical thinking, stress management, leadership, emotional intelligence, personality type, and “Who Am I?” (personal branding), essential skills- time management, money management, study skills, and technology. Both NRCF and SS staff emphasized strict discipline for students, yielding impressive outcomes.

Students were encouraged to participate by awarding the three most valuable, active students each day. Each student was given a token of Kes. 200 (USD $2) by the facilitator. This worked miraculously well and created very healthy competition and a lot of fun. The instructors always reminded students to respect everybody’s contribution while learning.

Learning was fun for all.

At the end of each day, the facilitators would always ask students to speak out feedback based on these questions:

1. What three things did you learn today?
2. How will you apply them in your life beginning today?

Forms 2 and 3 offered written feedback by completing a simple questionnaire. We collated and consolidated all the feedback per form, and the results are good.

Quotes from the students:

• “This program has really benefited me as I have a better understanding of WHO I AM and hope it will continue to benefit more students.
• “When angry, I conflicted with anyone I came across, blaming them yet I was the problem. I have now learned to manage my emotions as well as understand other people’s emotions.”
• “I have been in conflict with my father since I did not like to be directed, after the conflict management training, I was able to approach my father and it is after a long time that we sat as a family and laughed together. I am very happy to be in a good relationship with my father”.
• “I spent a lot of time on social media and I will now use my time well and research constructive things”.

The success of the LSTP can be attributed to the development of the curriculum by Meghan and Evan, NRCF provision of bus fare and meals, adequate preparation by all the parties involved, effective teamwork, constant communication to review and ensure on-track status and passion, and commitment from all the parties.

We hope that our students are going to take full advantage of this opportunity.

A big thank you to Megan and Evan, Rotary International, FoNR, and Success Signature for making the program possible.

Asante Sana,

Maureen Mulevi
Programme Director

In December 2017 we launched a Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) Program with the generosity of several U.S. donors and support of Tulane University. SRH is based on a youth peer provider model created by Tulane University as the best practice for our students.

Planned Parenthood Global trained fourteen students to become Youth Peer Providers of the SRH Program. After the training, 8 students were selected to conduct peer training (two-year commitment) due to their mastery of the materials and effective communications skills. Since December 2017, the Youth Peer Providers have trained approximately 70% of the students in seventh grade through post-secondary school. The remaining students are to receive training in December 2018, April 2019 and/or August 2019.

Excellent Preliminary Results
In its first year, the most positive outcome of the SRH program is that only one young woman became pregnant in the past year compared to seven in the previous year. Fortunately, she was close enough to her post-secondary graduation that it did not derail her education. While this is just one year’s data, we’re hopeful that we’re on the right track by providing facts and resources in an effective manner.

Continued Tulane University Support
We have continued to receive support from Tulane University for the program. Last summer, a Tulane student spent the summer in Nairobi evaluating the program under the supervision of Dr. Patty Kissinger, a professor and researcher at the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. She made several important recommendations, such as:

• Helping students become more likely to access medical care by scheduling tours of the partnered clinic and bringing healthcare professionals from the clinic to the training sessions.
• Making the educational material available to students online.
• Providing more training for Youth Peer Providers on SRH topics and skills such as presenting and handling difficult conversations.
• Educating parents and guardians on the importance of the training to create further buy-in from the Kenyan community.

Going forward, we will be implementing Tulane’s recommendations, doing a refresher training in January 2019 with the Youth Peer Providers, recruiting future Youth Peer Providers, and training the remaining 30% of students who did not receive training in year one.

Pioneering Sex Education
Sex education in Kenya lacks consistency, and we need to dispel numerous misconceptions. For instance, people wrongly believe that condoms cause cancer or that using contraception will permanently prevent women from conceiving a baby. Having access to factual information about their bodies and access to contraception is something our students in Kenya need to stop the cycle of early pregnancy.

We are excited about the results of the first year and believe it to be critical for all students’ success in the future. If you are interested in helping to fund this program in 2019 and beyond, please contact Lacey Kraft at lacey@ngongroad.org or 612-568-4211.

Fantastic Grade 8 Exam Results Received
The end of the calendar year is also the end of the school year for our students in Kenya. For those completing eighth grade, this can be an especially taxing time as they take their KCPE (Kenyan Certificate of Primary Education) exams. These exams take a number of days to complete and involve comprehensive testing of all their primary education studies. KCPE results determine what type of high school the student will be accepted into. The maximum score a student can achieve is 500 points, They are tested on the subjects of English, Swahili, Math, Science, and Social/Religious Studies – each subject being worth 100 points to make the 500 point total.

Broke the 400 Point Ceiling!
This year, one of our students, John Githui, has set a new NRCF record by scoring 409 points! This is compared to the best score in the entire country of 453. Only about 1% of students in Kenya score above 400 on the KCPE. Some of our other top-scoring students include Levy Otieno, Boaz Marube, Peter Leon, Latifah Njeri, and Angela Arina. Only two of our students who took the exam this year scored below the national average of 251, with more than 65% of our students scoring between 300-400 points. Our students accomplished an average score of 313.

A Great Accomplishment
We are immensely proud of these students, their caseworkers, and their sponsors for helping them to achieve such high marks. These scores will result in the students being accepted to more prestigious high schools, therefore paving the way for their post-secondary and life-long success. We are looking forward to future years of high KCPE scores and to seeing what these students are able to achieve!