Paula Meyer, Author at Friends of Ngong Road

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 leaders. 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 a 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 generated $150,000+ of revenue for 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 which 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 a 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 which 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.

March 27, 2021 By Paula Meyer Leave a Comment

Our students are now in lockdown.

Dear friends,

We learned late Friday afternoon that due to a significant escalation in the rate of COVID infections, especially in Nairobi, the President of Kenya has announced containment measures including a lockdown. Nairobi county and four adjacent counties have been declared to be a “red zone” and movement into and out of this area has been prohibited as of midnight on Friday.

Included among the measures being announced are: the reimposition of the dusk-to-dawn curfew, absolutely no gatherings of groups of people for any reason, all in-person education being suspended and all public and private sector employees encouraged to work from home. In other words, Nairobi is on lockdown. News reports from Kenya indicate that the South African variant, which is apparently more contagious, is the primary source of the recent surge in infections. We have also heard reports that all ICU beds in Nairobi are full. Our team in Kenya had an emergency meeting via Zoom on Saturday to discuss key implications (see Q&A below).

We will keep you updated on the rapidly evolving situation in Kenya. Please be aware that if you are expecting a response to recent correspondence, this situation may slow our ability to get students to write emails in Kenya. This situation highlights the challenges faced as our world copes with this truly global pandemic.

Here are the key implications of this lockdown to students:

Q: Will students remain in school for in-person education?
A: No. The children have been in school since January 2 but have now been sent home. The only exception is that students who have just finished high school and are sitting for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) will complete their exams in April. Students who are attending a boarding school outside of the five counties have been given two days to proceed to their homes. We are supporting that with bus fares and by making contact with their schools.

Q. We had many extra activities scheduled for students during their brief April holidays: Life Skills training, Sexual & Reproductive Health training, and Drug & Substance Awareness training. Will those training programs happen?
A: No. All of those special training programs will have to be rolled out sometime in the future. However, the case managers will use a bulk SMS process to both disseminate information on Sexual & Reproductive Health to students and to sensitize parents/guardians to emerging issues affecting students now home from school (e.g. substance abuse, teen pregnancy, etc.)

Q: Are students in post-secondary programs affected by this lockdown?
A: Yes. All in-person instruction has been suspended. Our staff will follow up with every institution to understand their plans. When possible, we will loan post-secondary students a laptop if online education is proceeding.

Q: How will the students get enough food to eat?
A: We had planned a school holiday lunch program and will seek county government approval to proceed by offering a packed lunch to students. If that fails, we will have to develop an alternative plan. We have a food aid budget to provide food packets for 27 needy families per month in 2021. This program may have to be expanded depending on how long this lockdown continues.

Q: How will you keep in touch with students and their families?
A: As we did during the 2020 lockdowns, our case managers will contact all students by phone and will get an update on their situation from parents or guardians. The case managers will encourage closer scrutiny of students in an effort to keep them on track while they are home.

Q: How will the Ngong Road Children’s Foundation staff operate?
A: The staff will continue its work-from-home rotation and will continue to follow guidelines related to mask-wearing, social distancing, and cleaning. The staff are being encouraged to get a vaccine and have been provided with a letter to show they are frontline workers. Vaccine availability in Kenya is limited, but some members of our team have already been vaccinated.

December 12, 2020 By Paula Meyer 1 Comment

Note from Paula – December 2020

December is a busy time of the year for all non-profit organizations, and Friends of Ngong Road is no exception. Like most U.S. non-profits, note that we raise a disproportionate amount of our annual budget in the 4th quarter and next year always goes better when we end this year strong. Our focus is on raising $75,000 to meet the Truscott match for our Annual Appeal – if you haven’t yet had a chance to donate, please click here to make a gift today.

In Kenya, our team is working at full throttle to prepare to get all students back to in-person school on January 4. Uniforms, school supplies, and books are being purchased and school fees are being paid. We are also in the process of identifying a new office location in Nairobi as our current setting is no longer a fit for our needs – we hope to move early in 2021.

With your help, it is key to note that we fed 300 program families daily between April and year-end. This was a big undertaking, organized as the world quickly evolved with the onset of COVID-19. We raised the necessary funds to pay for food and used a partner church as a safe distribution facility. When students return to school in January, families will face less financial stress and we expect to move to our more standard approach to family food aid – giving food packets as needed to families in the most challenging situations.

The Friends of Ngong Road board of directors recently affirmed our 5-year strategy to “double our impact”. What this means is that we will, by the end of 2024, have more than 1000 young people in Kenya on their journey to life transformation. Just today, I got an update on Mercy Akinyi, sponsored faithfully by one Twin Cities couple since 2008. Mercy has just completed her 3-year coursework to become a nurse. She will take two days of exams in January and again in April, after which she will have earned her nursing license, enabling her to secure permanent employment. The school she attended is managed by a hospital and she will likely have an opportunity to work at that hospital. Kenya needs qualified nurses and Mercy is on her way!

For these and dozens of similar life stories, we are deeply grateful to you – the donors and supporters who make this work possible. While the pandemic and other challenges will continue, we have learned that when young people have hope for a better future, many of them find a way to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles! Together, our job is to just give them a chance. Thank you and best wishes for a happy holiday season!

April 7, 2020 By Paula Meyer Leave a Comment

Launch of “Food from Friends”

Dear friends,

Last week I told you that one of Friends of Ngong Road’s priorities in our COVID-19 response in Kenya is to focus on family Food aid. We are calling this new initiative Food from Friends. In the course of a normal week during normal times, our program provides elementary-age students with breakfast and lunch each school day as well as a hearty lunch on Saturdays. Boarding school students receive 3 meals daily plus tea. As a result, when students are home these families experience extreme stress in just providing food for everyone.

Caseworkers for Ngong Road Children’s Foundation have contacted each family in our program over the past week. So far, no families in our program (including staff) have been diagnosed with COVID- 19. But, we’ve learned that two-thirds of our families have no source of income during the economic lockdown in Kenya. There are very serious limitations on movement and economic engagement including a curfew from dusk to dawn each day, enforced by police. Thus, our focus is to provide food aid for those families with no source of income. In our first week, we distributed 130 packets, but we must do more.

Each food packet contains beans and rice, corn flour, and cooking fat. Families eat beans and rice as a meal. Corn flour is used to make a staple dish called ugali (a thick cornmeal mush) that is typically eaten with collard greens or spinach. A food packet costs about $10 ($40 a month) and we estimate will feed a family of four at least one meal a day for a week.

We expect the need for food to grow as Kenya’s shutdown goes from days to weeks. Thank you for your commitment to providing Food From Friends. Please click on the Donate button to give today.

Sincerely,

Paula Meyer

April 1, 2020 By Paula Meyer Leave a Comment

Personal connections, a world away.

Friends of Ngong Road have worked for 14 years with students on the other side of the planet and somehow hundreds of sponsors and supporters have found a way to build personal connections with Kenyans. In fact, Friends of Ngong Road is deeply committed to helping sponsors and donors build relationships with the students in our program. In our world today, now challenged by COVID-19, we may be a world away but personal connections are still indispensable!

Students, our Kenyan staff, and their families are all fine so far. There are a total of 28 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Kenya. As of March 25 at midnight, no more international flights are allowed in the country. Kenya’s government has imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. daily. The president and his deputy have taken an 80% cut in pay and all other high-ranking officials have taken a 50% cut. The government has also made the important step of waiving income tax for people who earn less than 24,000 KSH per month (about $240) and reducing income tax for higher wage earners.

Our normal process is to distribute 15 food packets monthly to families in the greatest need. From March 23rd to 27th alone we distributed 50. We will try to increase this food distribution as we get more information about where the greatest need lies. A food packet is pretty basic: 1 kg of beans, 2 kg of rice, 500 g of cooking fat, and 4 kg of maize flour. This food provides the basis for a family of four to eat at least one time daily for a week. The maize flour is used to make a cornmeal mush called ugali, Kenya’s staple food. It is typically eaten with collard greens or kale.

The Kenyan offices are operating with a skeleton staff and handling meetings by appointment only. The computer lab and library are closed. We may allow some students to use it by appointment in the coming days and weeks. Caseworkers are making weekly calls to each of the families they support and through that, we are collecting data on how many people are still able to work, how many have traveled to rural areas in an effort to protect themselves, and how many are in dire need of support.

Thank you for the personal connections you have made with our friends in Kenya. We’re all in this together!