Paula Meyer, Author at Friends of Ngong Road

March 24, 2022 By Paula Meyer Leave a Comment

Employment Initiatives

In 2021, Friends of Ngong Road conducted a survey of our first 113 alumni and learned that 80% of alumni had one or more jobs between May 2020 – May 2021. This was an especially challenging time for employment due to the effects of COVID-19 restrictions on the Kenyan economy. While encouraging to learn such a high percentage of alumni had had jobs, at the time of the survey, only 46% of respondents were employed. Among those employed 76% had a job in the formal economy. Among the unemployed, 90% had worked in the informal economy, and when COVID hit, their work disappeared.

New emphasis on employment, an updated mission statement

These results led our board of directors to conclude we must do better. Since our inception, we have understood that Kenya’s formal economy has very high unemployment levels (about 40%) and that this last stage of life transformation, employment, would be most challenging. We have now made “employment” a fourth program pillar in our overall strategy (along with Education, Student Health & Well-Being and Supportive Community) and updated our mission statement to reflect our increased focus on helping graduates get and keep a job. Our updated mission statement is:

We empower Nairobi children living in poverty to transform their lives through education and support, leading to employment.

Programs to support employment objective
We currently have several initiatives in place or in development that support our goal of ensuring 75% of the alumni are employed within six months of graduation. Some of these programs begin in high school, such as Life Skills training and learning about career options. Other programs are focused on high school and post-secondary graduates, including:

Job placement through support of the Kenyan Board of Directors who make referrals to organizations within their network.
Karibu Loo Associate program– Karibu Loo (KL) is a portable sanitation business (owned by FoNR) that hires our graduates as part-time associates to help with the operations of the business, learning skills of organization, time management and working as part of a team. Karibu Loo has also hired graduates for full time roles in marketing and operations. Since inception, more than 120 graduates have been employed by KL.
Sales Academy – an intensive two-month sales training and six-month paid internship through a partnership with Yusudi Sales Academy. Two students will be joining this program in April as a pilot to see how successful it will be.
TechMates Program – A tech internship program where STEM Graduates are taken through an “on the job training” on digital marketing, website development and management using WordPress, Google Ads, as well as advanced programming. The interns are later linked with external companies for contract jobs.
Entrepreneurship training – Targeting alumni who are interested in starting a small enterprise by providing basic business creation training and linking them to funding opportunities.

Elsewhere in this newsletter, you will find more information about the TechMates Program. In the next five years, we expect to launch more initiatives focused on helping graduates get jobs. We know that when you begin life in extreme poverty the only way your life is truly transformed is if you get (and keep) a job.

December 15, 2021 By Paula Meyer 2 Comments

Letter from Paula

Dear Friends,

In 2021 the Friends of Ngong Road Board of Directors concluded a strategic planning process that will guide our work for the next five years. We have made significant changes in our Mission and Vision to better reflect how the program is running today, and where we will need to focus our energy over the next five years.

UPDATED MISSION STATEMENT: recognizes the importance of employment in life transformation

“Empower Nairobi children living in poverty to transform their lives through education and support leading to employment.”

VISION: outlines our aspirations for the next five years

Double our Impact in Kenya
- Double the number of active students in the program from 375 to 750
- Increase the number of alumni from 125 to 325.
- Program will then have affected 1000+ students.

Improve employment outcomes
- Enhance existing programs supportive of employment: Life Skills Training (high school); computer skills training (high school graduates); guidance counseling (high school); and alumni program. New initiatives will include TechMates internships; entrepreneurship training; and an expanded placement office.
- Achieve goal of 75% or more of graduates employed within six months of program completion

Ensure organizational sustainability
- Implement streamlined operations (technology, program, process)
- Define and implement the post-founder operating model and organization structure
- Ensure a sustainable financial infrastructure
Define earned income strategy
- Evaluate Karibu Loo Limited’s strategic future – grow, hold or divest
- Consider other earned income opportunities

SHARED VALUES AND CULTURE: shape how we act

Our values:

Respect
Teamwork
Integrity
Student-Focused
Reach Higher

Our culture:

We have a purpose
We care
We drive results
We learn together

An exciting and challenging five years lie ahead.

Thank you for your continued support as we make progress against our vision objectives.

Gratefully,

Paula R. Meyer

President

September 18, 2021 By Paula Meyer Leave a Comment

Letter from Paula

Dear friends,

Our mission since inception has been to support life transformation through education and ultimately employment. In 2021, we have come to believe we must increase our focus and effectiveness on the employment dimension of our mission.

Much of the employment in Kenya is called “casual”. Since there aren’t enough job opportunities in the formal Kenyan economy, people must create their own employment to survive. Most families of students in our program support themselves with casual labor. At the low end, this means cooking food to sell in the slums or running a small kiosk or doing day construction labor. If you are educated, casual labor may be contract or temporary work.

In May 2021, Friends of Ngong Road conducted a survey of alumni that we call The First 100. We surveyed 112 alumni of the program and received 95 responses. We learned that:

80% of alumni have had one or more jobs in the past twelve months.
At the time of the survey, only 46% of alumni were employed. Among that group, more than 80% had a job in the formal economy.
Among the unemployed, more than 70% had been working in the casual economy and when COVID hit, their work disappeared.
59% of alumni are supporting at least one other person – a child, a parent, a sibling.

Our conclusions are that we must provide more support to help students gain employment in the formal Kenyan economy. Kenya’s employment picture is certainly not at its best due to COVID-19. Nonetheless, our board of directors concluded we must do better. We are working to accelerate our efforts to support long-term employment by:

Deepening our understanding of areas where job opportunities exist in Kenya and then ensuring our students are preparing themselves in areas where there are employment opportunities.
Preparing students for employment during high school by teaching them about what kinds of jobs exist and the skills needed to get those jobs, teaching self-awareness so they become more astute about where they are likely to succeed and teaching interviewing/communication skills. We call these programs Life Skills and now deliver curriculum to all four years of high school.
Redoubling our efforts to partner with employers, local board members and other Kenyan supporters to connect students to that important first job.

A student with an education is much more likely to succeed than one who is not educated, but lives will only be transformed through employment. We will be working hard on this and sharing our findings. We support transformation through education AND employment!

July 6, 2021 By Paula Meyer Leave a Comment

The Impact of Leaders

“You are never too small to make a difference.” – Greta Thunberg, Norwegian environmentalist

I am a big believer in the power of leadership. We all see the impact of individuals with good ideas and effective leadership skills on organizations. I would like to briefly focus on the many ways Friends of Ngong Road is the beneficiary of diverse and effective leadership. In an effort to draw a line, I am going to focus on people who have served on our Board of Directors in the past. I cannot possibly summarize all the contributions of these people but can illustrate some part of their impact on Friends of Ngong Road.

Tom Gleason – served on the board of directors from 2008 – 2016. In 2009, he applied for a free license to SalesForce.com, got it, and helped us implement this powerful tool that remains our operating platform both in the U.S. and Kenya today. This tool transformed the effectiveness of our operations. Tom also founded and led camp in Kenya for most of the years of his tenure.

Karen Bohn – also served on the board from 2008 – 2016. Karen conceived and led our handicrafts business that generated $150,000+ of revenue to the organization over the years of her involvement and brought numerous new supporters to the organization. She led the growth of the library, creating book drives and collecting supplies. Karen worked with Paula to lead the organization’s Development efforts before we had staff.

Susan Plimpton – was a board member from 2010 – 2018. Her deep understanding of global development and fundraising was essential to our success during her tenure. She brought many new friends to the organization and connected us with organizations like Thrive Kenya. During this time, students were starting to graduate from secondary schools and choose areas of study. Susan developed our first career counseling program in response. Susan was also a strong fundraiser and an early supporter of hiring Development staff.

Sally Kenney – was a board member from 2017 – 2020. She brought the resources of Tulane University to bear and created our Sexual and Reproductive Health Program that has resulted in a material decline in the incidence of unplanned-for pregnancies among Kenyan students. Sally has a deep understanding of Development and provided practical guidance and support to our first Development Director.

Brian Hartert – began his volunteer contributions in 2014 as part of a competitive analysis team and joined the board in 2016. His deep financial expertise was instrumental in creating the solid financial and control infrastructure we rely upon today. He participated in or led global finance meetings from 2016 to the present and has agreed to continue to serve on the Board of Directors of Karibu Loo Limited. Brian has been promoted at Ameriprise and has two small children, so he has decided to step aside for now.

Meghan Feige – began her board service in 2019 and will conclude at the end of this year due to promotion at work and the increasing demands of her young family. Meghan and her husband Evan traveled to Kenya twice to test Life Skills training on graduating seniors. She completely designed our 4-year curriculum for Life Skills that is now integral to students’ experiences with our organization. She also helped conceive and lead our HR Committee as we moved from a volunteer-only organization to one with employees.

My gratitude to these individuals for their leadership contributions is profound. I am the founder of Friends of Ngong Road, but my contributions are only one slice of all the gifts brought to bear.

Thank you to all who bring their volunteer gifts and time to bear on our mission.