Friends of Ngong Road

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

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Rodney’s Story

By: Case Manager Mary Muriu

Listen to the full interview at:
https://illumini.podbean.com/

Rodney lives with his mother, brother, and nephew in the Kawangware slum of Nairobi. The family lives in a one room house made of iron sheets and timber. He joined High School this year and has been living at home since the pandemic hit and schools closed in March. His mother’s previous job was selling firewood to the slum dwellers but stopped due to a lack of buyers as many people are struggling in the slums as a result of the pandemic. In mid-June, the family was evicted due to rent arrears amounting to KES 6000 (USD $60). Their belongings were locked in the house and they had to leave everything behind with only the clothes they had on.

After they were evicted, the family went to live with a relative who lived nearby. They bought them clothes and offered them shelter as they tried to make enough money to pay what they owed for the rent.

Rodney’s mother found work washing clothes for income, but it didn’t produce much income. Yet, the little cash earned was used to offset rent arrears. Thankfully, after a month of staying with the relative, the landlord agreed to open the house and the family happily returned to their home. During this challenging time, the NRCF program provided food aid and supported Rodney with school revision materials. 

We appreciate sponsors for continued support for families like Rodney’s, and the many others that are experiencing hardship during this time. 

Mary Muriu
Senior Case Manager
Ngong Road Children’s Foundation

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COVID-19 NRCF Family Tracking Report by Michon Garrett

Listen to full interview

Friends, 

In a typical school year, case managers have lots of interactions with students where they check in about how the students are doing in school, how their families are doing at home, and about the health of the students and their families. These check-ins are part of the regular programming at Saturday Program, camp, home and school visits, meetings with families, and during school marks collection. 

However, during this pandemic, the opportunities for these check-ins have disappeared. As a result, the case managers have been calling every family about once a month to ask questions regarding updates to the family’s situation, health, and the student’s ability to do schoolwork at home. 

In May, sponsors received an update from case managers about their sponsored students and their families. Since that time, we have built a survey system in our data management system so we can collect and analyze the information we receive, and so we can publish it to sponsors more easily. This data collection allows us to see trends in what is happening to the families in the program, and identify situations where we can help make things easier. Below is some of the summarized data.
 

Information ReportedNumber of responses
out of 365		Total percentage
No one in the household is working5414.79%
Reported decrease in household income30784.11%
At high risk for eviction4813.15%
Receiving and doing assignments at home18751.23%
Student doesn’t have necessary technology to complete assignments277.40%

We have published the information collected by the case managers about your student to your sponsor portal so you can learn about how your student and family is managing in the midst of the pandemic. In addition, we will be sending the results to your email, so keep an eye out for it this afternoon.

If you are not yet a sponsor and are interested in sponsoring a student, please visit us at www.ngongroad.org/sponsor. 

Michon Garrett
Information Systems and Business Manager
Friends of Ngong Road

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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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