Friends of Ngong Road

Providing education and support to Nairobi children living in poverty whose families are affected by HIV/AIDS.

Archives for July 2020

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School closings, COVID-19, Program Update, and more from Kelvin Thuku

Greetings Friends, 

I hope you are all keeping safe during these trying times. At NRCF here in Nairobi we are keeping safe and continue to support our families and students through the Food From Friends program and regular follow up calls by case managers. The 2020 school calendar year has been confirmed to be a lost academic year with schools expected to resume in 2021. This means our students will continue staying home for a longer period than anticipated. 

For primary students, the schools have a program to keep students engaged during this period; they will receive assessments every month which they are required to submit to the school for marking. The case managers will be following up with students to ensure they are able to study from home. For high school students, the schools will continue sending assignments to students to keep them engaged. Finally, for post-secondary, the government has directed that the educational institution can have phased resumption in September while observing safety measures. The priority is to give final year students the ability to resume physically and for all other students, institutions are encouraged to adopt online learning. NRCF is working on strategies to support students for online learning when they resume through a computer loaner program and computer lab access scheduling.

In addition to education, NRCF is planning to restart special programs in August with the approval of local authorities and if the ban on gathering is lifted to help keep students engaged during this period. Sexual reproductive health program will start in August where youth peer providers will start facilitating small group sessions to help students make informed choices and stay safe from teenage pregnancies. Life skill sessions will start in September to acquaint students with necessary skills needed to survive such a difficult time. 

The Food From Friends program has been running smoothly; we continue to serve approximately 300 families every month with over 500 packages of food. We plan to continue with food issuance through to the end of the year.

Thank you for your continued support and commitment to supporting the students’ through the crisis with the hope of getting to an end of the crisis and refocusing on the mission of transforming their lives.

Regards

Kelvin Thuku
Programme Manager
Ngong Road Children’s Foundation

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Karibu Loo Highlights

Karibu Loo is operating with a reduced staff in response to Kenya’s COVID-19 restrictions.  When all gatherings were forbidden, our event business evaporated, causing our short-term event-based business to collapse. The restrictions on businesses also severely reduced our long-term business with construction and other businesses. We have been surviving on a few domestic businesses where people hire a loo for their residential compound, and a few construction companies that continued operations.

This week churches are being reopened with strict regulations on the size and duration of services. Small weddings and funerals are also now permitted. All are required to have adequate sanitation facilities in place. This, in addition to the reviving construction business, gives us hope for better months ahead.

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Virtual Happy Hour and Food from Friends Update

Virtual Happy Hour Update

Thank you to those of you who were able to join us for our first ever Virtual Happy Hour in May! We had over 100 participants, including long-time sponsors and donors, new supporters, and friends from around the world. We really enjoyed being able to share our updates and introduce ourselves to new supporters from all over, not just those who are here in Minneapolis, MN. As we mentioned at the event, we received a generous $10,000 match to support our Food from Friends campaign to help feed the students and their families while they are out of work due to COVID-19. After the Virtual Happy Hour event, we are so excited to announce that we met that match! Thanks to your generosity and the support of the match funds, we have been able to continue supporting all of the families who need it. 

Food from Friends Update

Most of the families in our program, including some of our alumni and their families, have received food as a result of the Food from Friends campaign. As the pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the slums (the peak is expected in September in Kenya), the families will continue to need our support. As of the end of June, more than 300 families have been served, and as most have received food donations twice a month, we have distributed a total of 1,623 food packages since April. We anticipate that this program will continue through the end of the year. If you have questions about how we are redistributing funds and how we plan to support this program and our families, please join us for our virtual Q&A Open Forum on July 29th.

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Notes from Paula

Dear friends,

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have worked hard to understand the changing landscape in Kenya and work with our staff and schools to devise a suitable strategy. Students all attended school during term one (Kenyan academic year begins in January) but lost about a month of in-person education as Kenyan schools closed the week of March 16. Since that time, Ngong Road Children’s Foundation (NRCF) case managers have remained in contact with all families in our program and we have supported in-home and online education to the extent possible. We began regular food distribution in late March and are now feeding 300 families on a regular schedule. Our offices have been kept open on a limited basis and we continue to monitor the changing situation.

School Reopening Schedule Delayed

On July 7, we learned that primary and secondary schools in Kenya will not reopen in 2020. President Uhuru Kenyatta announced this change from the prior plan, which had been to phase students back to school beginning in September. Since the COVID-19 case count in Kenya continues to rise, the teacher’s unions objected and the authorities have realized that school in 2020 is unrealistic. President Kenyatta announced that the 2020 school year will be repeated in 2021, so if a student was in class 7 in 2020, s/he will repeat class 7 in 2021 and so forth for all grades.

Plans for post-secondary education are a bit less clear.  The government has said these schools may commence in September if they meet safety guidelines. Since many post-secondary schools are privately owned we expect each school to commence at their own pace, perhaps beginning with online education and phasing into in-person instruction. Our plan is to manage this on a student-by-student basis and communicate with sponsors as we learn about each student’s situation.

Join Us for a Zoom Q&A July 29 

We are planning to host a Zoom Question and Answer session on July 29 at 4 PM CDT. To register, please click here. The purpose of this session is to answer your questions about the situation in Kenya. One thing we are all learning during this pandemic is that we can make plans, but they may not come to fruition. We will be communicating with sponsors over the coming weeks about your sponsorship contributions.  

Special Programs Re-starting

We plan to commence both Life Skills and Sexual and Reproductive Health education sessions in August, subject to approval by the local authorities. We will continue to distribute food aid and to support students’ efforts to learn online and stay engaged in their own education. 

Thank you for your continued support. The pandemic is difficult for all of us. Students in Kenya are experiencing so many new and challenging barriers to their success. Thank you for sticking with them as we all work to get to the other side of COVID-19.

Regards,

Paula Meyer
Founder and President
Friends of Ngong Road

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Letter from Kelvin

Greetings from Kenya!

Hope you are all keeping safe during these trying times. It’s been three months since the first case of COVID-19 was reported in Kenya and now we have crossed the 7,000 mark with the peak projected to be in September. We are grateful that over the last three months we had no positive cases reported among our staff, students or families. However, it was just a matter of time and this June we had our very first case of COVID-19 in one of our families. This is quite worrying given that the families are very vulnerable and many are living with preexisting conditions.  

Most families are out of work and rely on us for food

The general impact of COVID-19 has been hard hitting where 90% of our families no longer have stable income. The biggest challenge has been food and rent. The organization has continued supporting approximately 300 families with food aid every month thanks to donations from our supporters.  The families have been very grateful for this support and it gives them hope of seeing tomorrow. 

Primary and secondary schools closed until 2021

The school closure has been extended with no hope of reopening until 2021. Our students continue to study from home which is challenging given the circumstances our families live in.  We are glad to report at least 80% of them have been able to study from home despite the challenges posed. We have continued supporting students by printing out assignments and scheduling appointments for computer access. We also started issuing students with literature books from our library. Over 200 literature books to students have been issued while observing safety measures. 

Some high school graduates and post-secondary students continue studies

The 2019 high school graduates were able to go through the scholarship process and come up with feasible career plans in hope of joining colleges and universities in September, 2020. Most post-secondary institutions have opted to start online studies via Zoom and a number of our students are ongoing with such classes. 

Our staff is focused on providing support

NRCF staff have continued to support the families and students through check in calls done every month since April. In May the staff focused on updating sponsors while in June they continued with check in calls with the families. We continue to operate with a skeleton office encouraging staff to work from home and keep safe. 

We want to take this opportunity to appreciate all our supporters for their continued donations during this trying time. We are in this together and hope to overcome the crisis and continue with our mission of transforming lives.

Stay safe!

Kelvin Thuku
Programme Manager
Ngong Road Children’s Foundation