So many times after we got married I heard, “Make sure you have a will.” It became suddenly important to me when our daughter was born last June. My husband and I made it a priority and wrote our first will.

It came with a good discussion. What matters to us? What will we leave for our children? We want our daughter and future children to be safe and supported. But we also highly value the common good of humanity and education for all. We want that to be evident in our will and our children to know it’s important to our family.

The decision to include Friends of Ngong Road in our will was an easy one. We, of course, hope the will won’t be needed for many years, but right now it is a testament to ourselves and our children about what we value and the type of world we want to leave.

Consider adding Friends of Ngong Road in your will or make the organization a beneficiary of your IRA. Your tax or estate advisor can help you with these and other ways of making a difference for students in Kenya that are right for you. For example, if you are over 70 ½, the Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) provision may allow you to distribute funds in a tax-advantaged way from your individual retirement account (IRA) to Friends of Ngong Road as a qualifying charity.

Whatever way you choose to give, thank you for your partnership in transforming lives through education to employment.

Lacey Kraft
Development Director
lacey@ngongroad.org
612-568-4211

Karibu Loo has had some ups and down this quarter.  At long last, our container has arrived with 17 new cabins and a new exhauster!  That means we no longer have to do any manual servicing of the loos. Unfortunately, we have lost (hopefully temporarily) our biggest client, the British Army.  We are endeavoring to get it back and even expand our sales by securing another section of the British Army currently serviced by a competitor. Meanwhile, our social media campaigns have been successful in attracting short term  event business and we have engaged a social media marketing firm in Nairobi to expand these efforts.

Dear Friends and Partners,

Many people often ask us how we recruit students to join our program. They are surprised to learn that it is completely by word of mouth. In the Dagoretti slums of Nairobi, there are many HIV support groups and word spreads quickly that Friends of Ngong Road Program will provide a real chance for their children. It is often mothers or aunts in these programs who immediately bring their children to our office to see if they can join us.

On the waiting list, today are over 100 children ages 8-10. They have academic aptitude and guardians who support education. All they need is a sponsor. Some of the students waiting for sponsorship are:

I am a mother myself and wish we could support all of the students.

It breaks my heart when ailing mothers come to our office accompanied by their little ones and ask if we have matched their children with a sponsor. It is emotionally draining to see their pain every day. However, they have hope that they will be matched with a sponsor and get to join the program for a chance at a transformed life.

Would you be able to sponsor one of the students above? For approximately $2/day, you can give a student a chance through education. Let’s spread the word and give children like Lenox, Victor, and Dorcas a chance.

Maureen Mulievi

Program Director, NRCF

This spring we made an appeal to our sponsors and donors for help raising funds to purchase and fill school trunks for our secondary boarding students. In Kenya, it is common for secondary students to go away to live at school. This might appear strange to those of us in the U.S. accustomed to teenagers residing at home until they complete high school. For these students and their families, it offers a significant advantage.

At school, the teachers care for and feed the students, provide them with their own beds, and enable them to focus on their studies instead of worrying about life in the slums.

Each year we equip our secondary students with trunks filled with everything they need for the term. The students receive refills of these items each term when they come home to visit their families. They stop by the office to meet with their caseworkers. The trunks are filled with a restricted list of the necessities of life such as shampoo and body wash, laundry supplies to hand wash clothing, toilet paper, feminine products, toothbrush and toothpaste, body moisturizer, pens, and other school supplies. All students are required to bring the listed supplies and nothing else. No cell phone, no extra clothing – nothing that would separate one child from another.  In this way, all the children are equal as far as life at school is concerned.

Sponsorship payments only cover about half of our costs each year. The rest comes from our Annual Appeal in the fall, individual donations, grants, and fundraising efforts throughout the year. This year, we hoped that giving our donors the opportunity to help us pay for the trunks and supplies to fill them for our boarding school students would give some insight into these efforts. And it was a success! Our goal was to raise $10,000 for this expense this year. With your generosity, we were able to raise just over $11,100. (Extra donations support student expenses: Saturday Program lunch, holiday food packets, and more. Your contribution empowers education and well-being.)

Thank you for helping us make the first annual Spring Appeal a success! Your contributions greatly influence our annual fundraising, leading to a major positive effect on numerous students in our program.

Asante Sana!