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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Archives for November 2019

November 12, 2019 By Keith Leave a Comment

Karibu Loo Business Update

Karibu Loo Business Continues to Stabilize and Grow
October was the fourth profitable month in a row for Karibu Loo. The business seems to have found its footing and is now a growing young business in a pioneering area.

Winner of the “Best Sanitation Provider in Kenya” Award
In September the team applied for and won the Kenyan hospitality industry’s MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions) Award for the “Best Sanitation Provider in Kenya”. The team presented the award at a dinner event, which all the managers proudly attended. Since winning the prize, the marketing staff has blasted the news out as an email to all current and prospective clients and featured it on the website and on Facebook. It is a source of pride for the whole organization.

Social Media Marketing Fueling Success
While our Business Development Manager remains focused on institutional sales (especially schools and construction companies), a growing part of the business comes from our emphasis on social media marketing. Maureen Mulievi, our Executive Director, hired a Google expert who has significantly increased our online presence and effectiveness. Our phone started ringing so much that we have had to go to a new phone system to keep up with the calls from individual customers and businesses. That combined with our MICE Award has helped both institutional and event-driven sales.

Our Staff has become a Marketing Tool!
One of the key differentiators for Karibu Loo is that we hire only our program graduates for fieldwork. Our Senior Associates accompany every delivery and set up the units at the events or construction sites. To amplify our presence, we bought Karibu Loo branded overalls for the four young men who drive our trucks and deliver our units. Our customers gave us immediate positive feedback on having our workers in their new bright-red branded overalls. Associates have always worn red t-shirts with the Karibu Loo logo, but when the weather is bad the kids put on rain gear, which immediately covers up the logo. We are buying raincoats for the Associates to wear and gain exposure for the brand at the same time.

November 11, 2019 By Kelvin Thuku Leave a Comment

Letter from Nairobi

Currently, all primary and secondary (Form One to Form Three) students in Nairobi are on a long holiday that will end when schools resume on 6th January 2020. Grade (class) 8 students took the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) exams on 31st October 2019 while the final high school examination (Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education, or KCSE) for Form 4 (seniors) began on 4th November 2019 and will end towards the end of November. Their respective schools had prepared the students to tackle both key exams confidently.

During the long holiday, the students who are not sitting for exams will be taking part in various activities ranging from life skills sessions, career guidance and counseling, sexual/reproductive health training, menstrual hygiene education, drug use, and abuse sensitization sessions, group discussions, library sessions, and computer studies. The activities will take place concurrently with each class tackling a different area. High school students will learn life skills, group discussions, sexual/reproductive health, computer studies, and career counseling and mentorship. Primary school children will enjoy the library and computer studies.

We conduct drug use and abuse sensitization sessions for the upper classes (Grades 6 to 8). Girls in the upper classes receive menstrual hygiene education. During this time, the children are happily receiving breakfast and lunch which couldn’t have been available were it not for your generosity towards NRCF. Due to extended holiday periods, we have expanded the Saturday Program to provide children with activities that enhance their talents.

We divide sessions into four broad categories that aim to foster the holistic development of children. This involves psychosocial health (yoga, cheering, singing, fun activities, brain games, talent shows, and team building). Other areas are cognitive development (arts and crafts, book reading, debates and presentations, crosswords and puzzles), and social development (clubs and societies, e.g. drama, music, scouts, dance club, journalism, and St. John ambulance). Finally, physical development (soccer, Katie, taekwondo, soccer, rugby, volleyball, handball, and athletics). On Saturdays, children also enjoy a well-balanced lunch that is part of the nutrition program.

The highlight of the holiday season is the Annual General Meeting (AGM) for all NRCF stakeholders (children, parents/guardians, local community, NRCF staff, volunteers, and board members). During this meeting, we share our achievements, successes, challenges, lessons learned, and plans for the coming year. We normally share Christmas lunch as a family on this occasion. Families get Christmas packs with chicken, maize & wheat flour, cooking oil, rice, sugar, beans, veggies, and fruit.

We have scheduled the event for December 7th, 2019, in Nairobi. This year’s AGM is special since we will be launching our new entity – Ngong Road Children’s Foundation (NRCF). We will be transitioning from an “Association” to a “Non-Governmental Organization (NGO)”. The children are excited as they look forward to the event since it will be joined by the founder and President of Friends of Ngong Road, Paula Meyer. After the celebration children normally break for the Christmas holidays. Some travel to their rural areas to celebrate with their extended families. Others remain behind to continue benefiting from what the program offers normally such as library and computer lab access.

Thank you all for creating a big impact in the lives of these once desperate and hopeless children in Nairobi who have been given an opportunity to transform their lives.

Sincerely,


Maureen Mulievi
Programme Director
Ngong Road Children’s Foundation

November 7, 2019 By Paula Meyer 1 Comment

Note from Paula

Children grow up one day at a time and while it is happening, it can feel so very slow. Friends of Ngong Road is finishing its thirteenth year of operations and because of that, we have a large number of students who are now completing their education and launching careers. In September and October 2019, twenty young people got new jobs. Here is a sampling…

  • Selina, Mary, Cynthia, Lydia, and Ann got jobs as beauticians or nail technicians
  • Stephen is working as a freelance computer technician
  • Brian is working in the family business as a meat supplier
  • Victor and Wycliffe are both working as entrepreneurs
  • Hellen is working in a health care clinic, registering patients
  • Margaret and Patrick are both working for Ngong Road Children’s Foundation
  • Clinton is working as a refrigerator technician and Shammah as a plumber
  • Vivian got a job in food service at Kenyatta National Hospital

One of the students my husband and I sponsored completed her education about four years ago and informed me over the weekend that she is finally going to officially get her diploma in December. Another that we sponsored will also get his diploma in December and is working as a civil engineer on a water project near Jomo Kenyatta Airport.

Students who finished high school several years ago continue to work to improve their situations. Alice, who finished high school in 2013 and then had a baby, has gotten a part-time job at Safari.com working at corporate-hosted events. Esther, who graduated in 2012, got a new job as a customer service representative for a VIP travel agency.

With each of these stories, we see themes familiar to our own lives. You finish your education, get a job, then perhaps a better job. Sometimes you get sidetracked for a while, but then there is a course correction and a new opportunity comes along.

These are now young adults living normal, productive, middle-class lives in Kenya. They have broken the cycle of poverty and broken free of the slums. This is our mission and in each person who gets a job, we say Mission Accomplished!

Thank you for being part of it, for being patient with students who get side-tracked, and for celebrating with us for each life transformed.

Paula Meyer
Founder and President

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Friends of Ngong Road
100 1st St S #581308
Minneapolis, MN 55458
(612) 568-4211 | info@ngongroad.org

EIN: 20-4690846

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