So many times after we got married I had 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 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.

Norman Kamau joined the program in 2008 when Katy Egan-Benck and Ed Benck started sponsoring him. He was a very shy boy who was dealing with the recent passing of his father as a result of AIDS. He lived in a small two-bedroom house with his mother, who works as a seamstress, and his two brothers. They do not have water in the house, so it had to be purchased elsewhere and carried in. Norman’s brothers were 15 and 18 when he joined our program, so the family was very excited for him to get a quality education starting at a young age.

Norman graduated from Muguga Boy’s High School in 2016 where he only accomplished a D+ on his senior year exams, despite being a bright student. He decided to pursue his dream of becoming a tour guide and enrolled at the Kenya Wildlife Service Training Institute for his post-secondary studies where he studied Nature Interpretation & Tour Administration. He successfully completed his one year course, and is now waiting for formal graduation later this year.

In the meantime, he has been working as a Marketing and Administrative Assistant at Karibu Loo where he has been able to gain valuable work experience and job training. He has proven himself to be a dedicated employee, and has even brought in some of his own sales!

With his new diploma, job experience, and skills learned through our program, Norman has not only transformed his own life, but will continue to improve the lives of his family members and community. His story is just one example of how education and support from a loving network of adults (such as sponsors, guardians, and caseworkers) can make a difference.

Dear Friends and Partners,

We’re often asked how we find 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 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 asking if their children have been matched 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 decided to ask 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 go away to live at school. This may seem odd for those of us in the U.S. who are used to teenagers living at home until they finish high school but for these students and their families it is a huge benefit. At school the students are cared for, fed, have beds of their own and are able 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 and stop by the office to meet with their case workers. 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.

Only about half of our costs each year are covered by sponsorship payments. 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. (The extra donations will go towards helping us to fund student expenses like lunch at Saturday Program, holiday food packets, and others.)

Thank you for helping us make the first annual Spring Appeal a success! Your donations will make a significant impact on our fundraising efforts for the year, and therefore will make a significant impact on the hundreds of students in our program.

Asante Sana!