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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Camp 2018

Camp 2018 was a success! Over 90% of the NRCF students attended grammar and senior camps. Together with the students, volunteers, and NRCF staff, every day was a fun, new adventure. Children were able to mingle with old friends and make new friends. They enjoyed nutritional meals and new experiences during field trips. The field trips to William Holden Animal Foundation and Ngare Ndare Forest Trust offered students great exposure to natural resources and the opportunity to learn about conservation. Students were also able to engage in fun sports activities, problem-solving games, crazy games, and the Olympics. There was a great show of team spirit and collaboration during camp!

The camp theme this year was “I am in charge!” One student wrote,“The doctor told her I had already done as much as what they were to do and that really encouraged my dream of becoming a surgeon when I grow up. Since that day I appointed myself in charge of any injuries in the house and treat them very well because the doctors’ saying really enabled me to know how good one feels after helping a patient become normal again.”

Because of you, NRCF students know that they are in charge of their future and their dreams. Thank you for taking charge to make a positive change in the lives of our students.

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Student Essays: “I Believe I Can!”

In Gavin’s essay titled “I Believe I Can,” Gavin describes going to a secondary boarding school and being judged by his peers for coming from the slums. With self-awareness and courage, he reached out to his school counselor for help. He writes, “I now view myself as someone born to succeed from a gloomy past…I can be anyone in society I believe I can.” At camp each year, students write essays about their lives connected to the camp theme. Students often share intimate, powerful parts of their lives. Gavin, John, Edmond, Tina, Tito, and Joyce invite you to read their full essays.

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Emmanuel: I Believe I Can!

Emmanuel was nine years old when his parents passed. The end of his parents’ lives meant the end of his education as well. Emmanuel and his siblings moved in with his aunt, who was unable to afford school fees. Emmanuel watched his older siblings come to terms with the reality of their future and lost hope in his own future without an education as well.

In late 2008, his aunt learned of the Ngong Road Children’s Foundation program. She applied for Emmanuel to be accepted, and he joined the program in early 2009 and was sponsored by the Halloran family. Emmanuel remembered the weeks of sitting at home and wishing to go to school before he was accepted to the program, and he pledged to himself that he would make the most of the opportunity. Last year Emmanuel was ranked first in his class of 48 high school juniors! He wrote this essay at Ngong Road Children’s Foundation’s August Camp last year about his memories before being in the program and how he now proudly shouts that, “He believes he can!” 

Emmanuel Titi's Essay I Believe I Can

See Emmanuel’s full I Believe I Can Essay.

He has different goals and perspectives than most young people his age and he makes the most out of every opportunity. He understands that there is more to life than what meets the eye and wants a different future for himself. Keep up the good work, Emmanuel!

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Letter from Nairobi

August Camp Bells are Ringing

As you are probably aware, the students of the Ngong Road Children’s Foundation (NRCF) live mainly in the slums, where they live difficult lives and have limited exposure to good physical and social amenities. Because of this, the annual August Camp is truly the highlight of the year for our students. With gratitude for sponsors, donors, and dedicated volunteers, our thriving camps have flourished for a decade, improving annually.

August Camp has many educational, well-being, and social objectives, all set in a fun, learning environment. Camp strives to:

  • Provide unique, fun educational experiences.
  • Improve health and well-being.
  • Create a close-knit, supportive community, where students develop a strong sense of belonging and where they are exposed to and taught about good personal values.  
  • Develop leaders and teach leadership skills.
  • Provide a new view of the world to all who attend camp, both students and international volunteers alike.
  • Give students who live day-to-day lives in poverty and in difficult circumstances, the opportunity to just have fun and be kids in a safe environment.

The outcome is transformative, impacting students and volunteers from Kenya and abroad, altering lives through a profound experience. Our NRCF students are anxiously waiting for this year’s August Camp, which is scheduled for August 6th to 22nd. We’re crafting a dynamic program with indoor and outdoor activities to stimulate students both physically and mentally.

Run in an environment that encourages openness, the camp will include guest speakers who put emphasis on discipline. Hard work as cornerstones for success, as good classes to help students develop key personal and life skills to prepare them for their future careers. Help them grow up as responsible citizens.

I know our students are lucky to have both local and international sponsors and supporters who are touched by their plight and who generously sponsor their formal education. Camp goes beyond this and provides a means to develop the all-around person. As you can imagine, holding an off-site 17-day camp for our 377 students is costly. Against this background, in June we will be kindly inviting our enthusiastic supporters to make donations to ensure that every student gets the opportunity to attend this year’s camp.  

I sincerely thank all stakeholders for dedicating time and funds, vital to the success of our previous camps. Grateful! Be on the lookout to “Send a Kid to Camp” this June!

Maureen Mulievi
Program Director
Ngong Road Children’s Foundation

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Notes from Paula

Dear Friends,

By now you will have received an email from Amy Johnson updating you on the clean 2017 audit received by our sister organization in Kenya, Ngong Road Children’s Foundation. After discovering the theft of resources in the 2015 audit, we devoted considerable energy to reinvigorating financial controls and improving processes. I am very pleased Crowe Horwath has endorsed those efforts as having been effective by granting this clean audit.

I recently took an online course hosted by the Wharton School entitled “Corruption”. It has been proven that corruption can be significantly reduced by organizations through a combination of ethical leadership, active management/supervision, and appropriate risk management processes. We will continue to discuss other best practices that would fit our circumstances and help us remain vigilant about this risk.

Friends of Ngong Road completed our last strategic planning process in 2015 and we are working throughout 2018 to tackle important strategic questions to revisit that process. Our expectation is to have a three-year strategic plan completed by the end of 2018 for 2019 – 2021. Here are just a few of the issues we are tackling:

  • Karibu Loo has been profitable in the first four months of 2018 and is on target to provide $10,000 or more to Ngong Road Children’s Foundation this year, reducing funds we must raise in the U.S. to support the program. We are in discussion about how much and in what way Friends of Ngong Road should support Karibu Loo as it grows and becomes a contributor to the program’s funding needs.
  • Succession is on our minds. I have communicated to the board that I expect to move into an emeritus status during this 3-year planning horizon. We have to decide how we are going to make that transition which raises issues about board composition, staffing, etc. And, we have several long-tenure board members who will also be transitioning in the coming years. Finding their successors is a high priority.
  • Sponsor growth is another important topic to discuss. Our model for sponsor recruitment has been “friends and family”, however, we are all running out of friends. What model for sponsor recruitment will be effective in the future?
  • How much should we grow? If Karibu Loo can provide a significant contribution to the organization, and we have a healthy endowment fund, how much should we grow?

I look forward to sending you an update on our 2019 -2021 strategic plan at the end of the year.

In the meantime, we are excited to welcome Judy Nyaga to Minneapolis on May 14 and 15 and Kelvin Thuku in the first half of June. Judy is a board member in Kenya and Kelvin is the Program and Technology Coordinator. We will host gatherings and meetings during their time in the Twin Cities and hope you will have the opportunity to meet these people who do so much to support student success in Nairobi.

Thank you!

Paula Meyer
President and Founder
Friends of Ngong Road