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

We are all feeling a bit overwhelmed by developments in the world over the past two weeks including the spread of COVID-19.  This is a brief update on what is happening to our program in Kenya and also to our team in the U.S.
Our objectives are:

• to keep our staff in both Kenya and the U.S. safe and healthy;
• to comply with public health recommendations and mandates in both countries; and
• to make decisions that enhance the likelihood the organizations will successfully weather this storm so we can continue to focus on our mission of educating students and transforming lives post-crisis.

It is important to note that the community we work with in Kenya is extremely vulnerable to the harm this situation will inflict on people. Most of the student’s parents and guardians have pre-existing health conditions; they all have limited income, usually earned by performing casual labor that has already evaporated; and in the slums, there is no such thing as “social distance”. You will note in our summary of the situation in Kenya that we have increased our budget for emergency food aid and believe it will be sorely needed in the coming weeks. If you would like to make a donation to support providing basic food packets to our families in Kenya, please click on the button below. A $40 gift can provide food packets that feed a family for a month.

Donate now to provide food support for families who are impacted.

In Kenya:

• Several cases of COVID-19 have appeared in Kenya.  The government of Kenya has taken aggressive action to prevent the virus from spreading in the country.
• Kenyan public health officials have mandated no gatherings of large numbers of people, they have closed all schools effective this week and require that employees work from home.
• We have formed a Crisis Management team for both Ngong Road Children’s Foundation and Karibu Loo Limited.  The teams in Kenya meet daily and provide written updates to the U.S. Crisis Management Team, along with a global weekly touch-base meeting.
• Ngong Road Children’s Foundation will operate with a skeleton staff and will communicate with students and families through text messages, updates to our website, and printed flyers. This is in regards to the measures in place to deal with COVID-19.
• Caseworkers are available to students and families by telephone or by appointment in the office in case of emergencies.
• Saturday Program, home visits, and school visits are suspended during this crisis.
• We have cut staff hours, salaries, and other expenses in an effort to preserve options as the crisis unfolds while also ensuring our staff has enough income to cover their essential needs.
• Karibu Loo business will also be curtailed as long as there are prohibitions on gatherings and social events as a move to curb COVID-19 spread.  As with Ngong Road Children’s Foundation, we have reduced expenses to a minimum.
• We have significantly increased our budget for food aid for families, as we expect this crisis to result in significant food insecurity for our population.

In the United States:

• We have formed a Crisis Management Team consisting of Paula Meyer, Amy Johnson, and Keith Kale; we meet daily.
• Our associates in the U.S. operate on a remote basis and will continue that practice. We have made no changes to staff compensation or hours, though changes made by daycare providers are affecting several of our team members.
• Paula Meyer and other board members have increased the amount of time working on Friends of Ngong Road matters and we expect that to continue in the coming months as we work to navigate these unprecedented times.  Our board of directors will meet this week and again in April to deliberate issues facing the organization.

We remain committed to our mission and will work to successfully navigate these challenging times.  If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to paula@ngongroad.org.Thank you, and stay healthy!