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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February 26, 2021 By Michon Garrett Leave a Comment

2021 Spring Appeal: Michelle’s Story

Michelle is a 7th grade student at Jagiet School in Nairobi’s densely populated Kawangware slum-village in the Dagoretti district. Like her fellow students, she spent most of last year in her home unable to attend school for most of the 2020 school year because of the national Covid-19 shutdown. 

Living in the Slums is Challenging

It’s hard for anyone not living here to imagine, but try if you might, to understand Michelle’s story. Michelle wakes up in the predawn hours on a mattress on the floor. Living on the equator, the sun rises and sets the same time everyday. You might think living on the equator means it’s warm outside, but this is Nairobi, Kenya, a place nearly a mile high in elevation. So the nights are cold. 

Michelle’s home is an unheated, single room, lined with thin corrugated iron sheet walls that enclose a slum-typical 12 by 24 foot shared area. A fabric sheet is hung from the ceiling down the middle to create a sense that there are actually two rooms, separating the pubic from the private space. The place is packed with storage bins containing clothing, bedding, bulk food stuffs, water jugs, cookware, dishes, and some collectables that were brought from better times living in the country before the famines drove them to a place less isolated and desolate. The tightly packed quarters are organized but to a visitor it feels extremely cluttered, with only a narrow path to twist through. 

The concrete slab floor has rugs strewn about to soften the surface. Michelle’s home has electricity, something not everyone living in the slums can access. There is no plumbing, no running water. Michelle pours water from a 20 liter jerry can or jug that was purchased for 10 Kenyan Shillings (about 10 cents, USD) and carried home earlier in the week. To make morning tea she pours water into a pan to heat on a kerosene or charcoal jiko stove. She uses some of it to wash. The compound’s outhouse, just a hole in the ground in a small enclosure, serves several families. Michelle’s home is among so many more, lined up side-by-side-by-side in gated neighborhood compounds. Living on about $2 (U.S. dollars) a day, more than 100,000 people live like this in the Kawangware slum. 

Typically, Michelle would walk thirty minutes to school each morning. Her walk starts off chilly, as she starts of with her backpack strapped on and the school uniform sweater pulled down over her knuckles. Michelle’s first steps begin with shivers but her fast pace quickly warms her. The walk begins in the dark. As the orange sun quickly rises, the clay dirt street dust is whipped up from the bustling foot, car, truck and bus traffic, joining a smog you can almost taste. Michelle’s commute takes her from the dirt paths of her neighborhood, through the noisy streets, and eventually to the relatively pastoral setting of Jagiet School. The frantic noise of the morning’s urban hustle and bustle flips to the welcoming sounds of roosters crowing, footsteps shuffling, and children giggling. 

At this same time, Michelle’s mother would be setting off to purchase fresh vegetables from the wholesale lot for the day, and then sell them from her small kiosk in the neighborhood. 

COVID-19 Changed Everything in 2020

The pandemic changed everything, suddenly and dramatically. The Kenyan government took swift action upon the onset of the spreading Covid-19. There were no half measures. All schools closed. Almost all businesses closed, and those remaining open had very restricted hours. Transit systems were shut down. Those who worked in service and retail industries, which make up the vast majority of Kawangware residents, no longer had jobs nor income. Michelle, like everyone, stayed home socially distanced from friends and classmates. Michelle’s mother’s retail business struggled because vegetables were no longer being regularly shipped to wholesalers, and the loss of jobs meant people in the neighborhood could not buy food for their families. Michelle’s older sister who has a young child lost her service job and moved back in with Michelle and her mom. The family restricted their movements and stayed close to home. 

Michelle had a limited ability to maintain her studies through distance learning administered through the school and organized by Ngong Road Children’s Foundation. She was able to pick up and drop off school lessons, materials and assignments using social distance practices. Her family also received the critical Food from Friends support, keeping her family nutritionally supported. These past months were a challenge, but Michelle and her family remain well and safe from the pandemic. Phenomenally, much of the Kenyan population has escaped contamination from Covid-19. 

2021 is Spring Forward, No Summer Break Ahead

Starting in January, schools reopened with protective protocols in place. There remain concerns about the potential for the Covid “variant’ disease to reach Kenya and spread. So precautions going forward are critical. Michelle has her uniform and masks, and as of January has begun a new routine of returning to Jagiet School each day. Ngong Road Children’s Foundation senior case manager Tunda reports that the family is managing as they hope for even better days ahead. 

Going forward, challenges are ahead. With the loss of a school year, the government’s plan is to compress the education schedule for the next two years. In 2021, Michelle and her fellow students will be attending four semesters in the usual three-semester year. The traditional month-long August break is cancelled. School will go straight through from January to December 2021. And, that schedule is planned to be repeated next year.

Michelle’s mother remains hopeful. She believes in her daughter’s commitment to education, and she feels more assured because their home has electricity and Michelle is, therefore, able to study even at night. 

Michelle and her family wish to express that they are very grateful for the support of her sponsors, donors and the generosity of Friends of Ngong Road. The 2021 Spring Appeal is critical to maintaining support during this important time for them and others. 

Donate to the Spring Appeal

January 13, 2021 By Michon Garrett Leave a Comment

Students are going back to school!

All of our students received face masks and hand sanitizer, along with new shoes and school supplies. Boarding school students also received necessities such as soap, toilet paper, toothbrush, and laundry supplies. 

Schools are expected to follow government guidelines.

Some of the guidelines include:

  • Distancing of students in the classroom.
  • No family visits to students in boarding school (this includes our case managers, who will have to do check-ins by phone). 
  • Masks and adequate hand-washing stations.

You can read the full Press Release from the Kenyan President here.

December 13, 2020 By Michon Garrett Leave a Comment

COVID-19 Assessment Results – November 2020

In November, case managers completed another round of calls to families to find out the status of the household health, finances, and student’s schooling. The students are very much looking forward to going back to school in January. Kenya, and Africa as a whole, seems to be managing this pandemic much better than the US – in fact, the Washington Post released an article about it last week. Most of our students are either receiving assignments from their schools, or are completing supplemental assignments given to them by their case managers. Many of the students have also started completing book reports – which you can find in your sponsor portal in the ‘Handwritten Letters & Essays’ section. 

One of the biggest highlights of this month’s round of calls is that the number of families who are receiving zero income is down significantly. This means that most of the families have found ways to make money, even given their incredible challenges. As of November, only 11% of families didn’t have anyone working – compared to the first round of calls in June when 29% of families reported that no one in their family was able to find work. All of the families have expressed deep gratitude for the food support they have received this year. It has lifted a tremendous burden while the students have all been home from school. 

This week we will be publishing the individual results to the sponsor portal. Keep an eye out for them so you can read about how your student and their family is doing, and be sure to write a note or record a video message for your student to encourage them as they head back to school in a few weeks. 

December 13, 2020 By Michon Garrett Leave a Comment

Back to School!

We are thrilled for the students in Kenya as in a few short weeks, they will all go back to school. Students will resume where they left off in March of 2020 and start their second trimester. 

Instead of having 3 trimesters and month-long breaks after each term, students in Kenya will have 4 terms for the next two years, and the breaks will be shorter. The purpose of this schedule is to allow for all the students to start where they left off in 2020, and to resume the normal schedule again as quickly as possible. If all goes according to plan, students will again have three terms per year and the normal breaks starting in 2023. 

We will do our best to lay out what the current plan is (below), and if you wish, you can read the Press Release from the Ministry of Education here. And, as we all know from how chaotic it has been here in the US to figure out schooling of young students, this is the current plan, but the situation could change at any time.

2021 School Schedule:

2nd TrimesterBreak3rd TrimesterBreak1st Trimester*Break2nd TrimesterHoliday Break
1/4/21- 3/19/213/20/21- 5/9/215/10/21- 7/16/217/17/21- 7/25/217/26/21- 10/1/2110/2/21- 10/10/2110/11/21-12/23/2112/24/21-1/2/22
11 weeks7 weeks10 weeks1 week10 weeks1 week11 weeks10 days
Grades 8 and 12 national testingGrades 8 and 12 on break

The initial break in March is longer than the others due to the national exams that the 8th and 12th graders will be completing. In Kenya, the tests are so extensive that they require weeks of actual testing, and then multiple weeks to grade the exams and publish the results. 

*In July, all students will move up and begin a new school year. This means that the students who just completed testing in 12th grade will begin the transition to post secondary, and all the other students will move up a grade level. 

December 13, 2020 By Michon Garrett Leave a Comment

Food from Friends Wrap Up

One of our biggest successes this year was the Food from Friends campaign. In March, we explained to our supporters that due to the students staying home from school (where they normally receive two meals a day), and the lack of options for income for their families, we needed to raise the money to be able to feed every single family (and some alumni) in our program. You stepped up in an incredible way, and we are so thrilled to say that we accomplished our goal. We hoped to raise $80,000 to feed 350 families from April through December. With your help, we were able to raise $88,000 and feed 373 children and their families – a total of about 5,000 food packets. 

So many of you donated to this cause. From $20 to our $10,000 match, some of you even choosing to donate on a recurring basis each month. Thank you, thank you, thank you! If you are a sponsor and you have read your student’s COVID assessment report on the sponsor portal, many of the families answer the “anything else we should know?” question by thanking the case managers for the food support. For most of them, it is the only way they have been able to survive the pandemic and resulting lack of income. 

We are so happy that the students are able to return to school in January, and that those schools will once again be able to provide them with the two meals a day that they need to thrive and learn. We have built a robust ‘emergency food fund’ into our 2021 budget so that we can continue to support families who need it. But, the families are reporting that they are back to work, and with students going back to school, we can turn our attention to how we will pay for an extra school term for every student in 2021 and 2022.

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Friends of Ngong Road
PO Box 581308
Minneapolis, MN 55458
(612) 568-4211 | [email protected]

 

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