Update Archives - Page 23 of 31 - Friends of Ngong Road

December 28, 2018 By Mary Wanjiru Leave a Comment

SRH Program Update

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.

October 1, 2018 By Lacey Kraft Leave a Comment

Letter from Nairobi

Summer Camp was a big success. A big thank you to all who supported it.
The 2018 Summer Camp was a big success because everything was implemented as planned thanks to the camp leaders, campers, Post-Secondary student volunteers, NRCF staff, U.S. volunteers, NRCF board, FoNR board, our sponsors, donors, and well-wishers who made it possible. Camp attendance was very high for all the groups. Little kids camp, grammar, and senior camp at 100%, 92%, and 91% respectively. For post-secondary camp, the attendance was lower at 55% since many students were doing their end-of-semester exams in the first week of August. We had no major emergencies, except one of the boys dislocated his wrist during one of the games.

Children got a chance to enjoy a balanced diet thanks to Tile and Carpet (our corporate partner) who donated most of the dry food. The traveling logistics were a success despite the long distance to the camp which was tiresome. All the activities were good and the children enjoyed them very much. There was a great show of team spirit and collaboration during camp activities ranging from fun sports activities, problem-solving games, Crazy games, and “Olympics” sports games. The evening activities, like dance contests, offered the children a platform to explore and nurture their talents. The climax of camp for most students was a field trip to William Holden Animal Foundation and Ngare Ndare Forest Trust which offered our students great exposure to natural resources and conservation practices.

Progress of the Sexual Reproductive Health Program
The NRCF Sexual Reproductive Health Program (SRH) using a Youth Peer Provider model was launched in December 2017. The objective of the program is to provide accurate and comprehensive information and training regarding sexual and reproductive health and rights for adolescents and young adults to remain free from unintended pregnancy, and prevention of STIs including access to contraceptives.

The SRH Program is run and facilitated by NRCF Youth Peer Providers (YPPs), who are students recruited to receive training and information. A total of 15 YPPs were trained by Planned Parenthood Global. After the training, we selected 10 trainees out of the 15 whom we felt were most capable and ready to disseminate the information to their peers at NRCF.

The 10 YPPs are effectively offering reproductive health training, guidance, and counseling to their peers. They also refer them to Riruta Health Centre, a local government clinic we are partnering with located in Dagoretti Constituency for further counseling and contraceptives. Riruta Health Center offers free youth-friendly services such as counseling, contraceptives, and STI testing and treatment. It is an important resource for young adults as we do not offer contraception directly to students apart from condoms and emergency contraceptives.

The SRH Program Coordinator is Joy Obiya, our post-secondary caseworker. Joy provides oversight of the program and meets periodically with the YPPs to provide support and address any emerging challenges.

Since the inception of the SRH Program, that is, from December 2017 to August 2018, a total number of 335 students have been trained. The sessions were conducted during school holidays at the Nelson Mandela School, NRCF offices, and during the August summer camp in Nanyuki

The program is having a great impact on the trainees by improving their knowledge in SRH, helping them in developing self-confidence and self-esteem, and creating a safe space for them in matters pertaining to reproductive health. This has positively changed attitudes, clarified myths & misconceptions, strengthened informed decision-making, and provided them with access to condoms and other contraceptives.

We want to appreciate all our sponsors, donors, and well-wishers who contributed towards the success of this program. Special gratitude goes to Prof. Sally Kenney, Prof. Patricia Kissinger, Kelsey Williams, and other Tulane University students who worked tirelessly and continue to support us to ensure the success of the program.

Karibu Loo Update
Karibu Loo Limited is performing fairly well. We are happy to report that the British Army Training Unit in Kenya (BATUK) business is back with training sessions taking place in the northern part of Kenya specifically in Nanyuki, Laikipia, and Samburu.

With the new truck that we purchased in May thanks to the generosity of a few individual donors, operations at KLL have been smooth. The donations also helped purchase a new exhauster and more cabins.

At KLL, we continue to focus on KLL’s objectives as follows: Generate a stream of income that will provide 25% of NRCF’s annual operating budget, provide employment for graduates of the program and other Kenyans and improve sanitation in Kenya. We are on track to achieve our first objective and efforts are geared toward making the business more profitable. We continue to provide employment to our graduates and by now over 50 NRCF graduates have had a chance to work in the company, with 30 being regular associates and four permanent employees. The newest permanent KLL employees from NRCF graduates are Norman Ruguaru working as an Administration and Marketing Assistant and Simon Odhiambo working as an Operations Associate. The two are both aged 22 years and graduated from the Form Four class (senior) of 2015. Simon did not pursue post-secondary education thus the training he is receiving at KLL is very valuable to him. Norman enrolled for a certificate course in Nature Interpretation and Tour Administration at the Kenya Wildlife Service Training Institute and is scheduled to graduate in April 2019.