Search Results for: saturday program

Saturday Program

The Saturday Program is held at a location convenient to the children with a field or space large enough to accommodate games and various activities.

Early each Saturday morning, our cooks arrive to prepare food for the children. Through a combination of school lunches and the Saturday Program the children are assured at least one meal six days a week.
Before the official start many children go to the library and check out books to read to themselves or out loud to an appreciative audience.
Our event coordinator organizes activities including games and music. The caseworkers coordinate writing letters to sponsors, reading time in the library and scheduling time in the computer lab.
A nurse is on hand to meet with individual children suffering from ailments, referring them to clinics or prescribing treatment as appropriate. Multivitamins and de-worming pills are distributed on a regular basis.
Caseworkers take roll call every week and connect with each child to ensure they are getting the attention and support they need.

Two and a half minute video about our program produced by KMSP TV featuring our Saturday Program:

[envira-gallery id=”2087″]

March 23, 2020 By Michon Garrett 4 Comments

Kelvin Thuku – new role as Program Manager

We are very pleased to announce that Kelvin Thuku has been promoted to the position of Program Manager for Ngong Road Children’s Foundation (NRCF). Kelvin joined the organization in April 2013 as an ICT Coordinator. He trained in Information Technology where he specialized in computer hardware repair and maintenance, software development and maintenance, and database management among other skills. Kelvin is also a Technical Trainer having pursued Technical Education at Kenya Technical Trainers College.

Kelvin was raised by a single mother in the Kangemi slum in Nairobi. After high school, he was supported by an uncle for his college education. This taught him the value of educational support and he worked hard so as not to let his uncle down. His biggest academic achievement was when he was named the best student in Kenya Technical Trainers College.

Kelvin really enjoys serving the children in various ways such as teaching computer knowledge and usage, organizing fun activities for the children during the Saturday Child Development program, and Summer camp. Kelvin aspires to inspire children by offering mentorship and support since he has gone through a similar journey. He feels that the organization is giving hope to children just as he was given hope by his uncle. Kelvin believes that the biggest gift you can give to your kids is education because knowledge is power. He feels this is being realized in NRCF. Kelvin sees that education has opened employment opportunities to the vulnerable students in the program. And, he delights in being a part of the NRCF mission and to see it come to life.

August 16, 2018 By Michon Garrett Leave a Comment

Susan Plimpton and Michon Garrett Visit Program

By Susan Plimpton

Michon Garrett, Director of FoNR Operations, and I traveled to Kenya this past May to spend 10 days with the staff of our Kenyan sister organization, the Ngong Road Children’s Foundation. Our primary purpose in going was to meet with the caseworkers for the post secondary students, those young people who had finished secondary school and were now enrolled in the Post Secondary Program to provide the skills, additional education and training to qualify them for employment. There currently are 83 young people enrolled and most are in one or two year programs from which they will receive a Certificate or Diploma upon completion. The fields our students enter are varied and range from automobile mechanics to hotel management to accounting to barista worker. We are very proud of the 93% success rate we are achieving in placing our alumni in internships or full time jobs.

Our objectives were to ensure we fully understood how the program was operating, to provide additional training on using the software we provide to track our students’ progress, and to understand some of the challenges our Kenyan team have in helping students select and complete the right program for themselves. We also met with every recent secondary school graduate to hear their plans for further education and to discuss with the staff if that was the best next step for that student.

In addition, we attended a Ngong Road Children’s Foundation Board meeting, participated in the Saturday recreation program for all students, met with our and other sponsors’ children, and interviewed some of our employed alumni. All in all it was a very worthwhile and inspiring visit.

October 28, 2014 By Lacey Kraft Leave a Comment

Evolution to Post Secondary Program

In 2012, we had our first five students finish high school and in 2013 another twelve stud Asaph ents joined their ranks. We have treated this first group of 17 as a pilot project as we worked to shape the Post-Secondary Program.

Based on our mission

The underpinning of the Post-Secondary Program begins with our mission statement which concludes with these words: “so they can transform their lives.” The question is, what is the measure of a life transformed? [Read more…]

April 20, 2020 By Kelvin Thuku 1 Comment

Update from Nairobi: Food from Friends

Ngong Road Children’s Foundation’s main priority in our COVID-19 response is to focus on family food aid. We are calling this new initiative Food from Friends. In the course of a normal April, our program provides students with breakfast and lunch each weekday while they are on break from school as well as a hearty lunch on Saturdays during Saturday Program. We are no longer conducting these programs due to the government directives on social distancing and avoiding gatherings. The children are at home with their families, many of whom are no longer working.

We have been running the Food from Friends project where funds gathered are used to purchase food packages for families. We have approximately 300 families dependent on our program. Each food packet contains 1 kg beans 2kg of rice, 4kg of maize flour and 500g of cooking fat. In the last two weeks, we have been able to issue food aid to around 200 families among which 72 of the neediest families have received food packets twice. 75% of our families have 3-5 people in a household and the food pack we give can only last them for a week. We are looking at being able to provide larger quantities of food that would last a family a month, thus minimizing the movements of parents coming for food aid every week.

Families that have received food have shared that they consider themselves so lucky to be part of this organization and so thankful for the food aid support.

We thank our donors and well-wishers for your commitment to providing Food from Friends. We are in this together and we shall overcome. Stay safe.

Kelvin Thuku
Program Manager
Ngong Road Children’s Foundation