Friends of Ngong Road

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

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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. Seeking new office in Nairobi as current space unfit. Aiming to relocate by early 2021 for improved suitability.

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”. By the end of 2024, we aim to have over 1000 Kenyan youth embarking on a life transformation journey. Just today, I got an update on Mercy, 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 April, after which she will earn her nursing license. It will ensure her to secure permanent employment. The school she attended is managed by a hospital, and she may have the opportunity to work there. Kenya needs qualified nurses and Mercy is on her way!

We express our gratitude to the donors and supporters who have made this work possible through numerous similar life stories. 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!

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The Sponsor/Student Portal Experience

Since its inception, Friends of Ngong Road has operated with the principle of establishing one-on-one relationships between sponsors and students. Up to this point, relationships were created largely by encouraging communications, namely exchanges of letters and materials sent through the mail or hand-carried between the U.S. and Kenya. This past year, the organization enhanced the ability for sponsors and students to become connected by establishing the Sponsor/Student Portal. 

While many are still exploring the Sponsor/Student Portal as a new tool, its possibilities for use seem limitless.

And especially in this time of Covid-19 imposed realities — where distance learning, social isolation, and many of us are learning to embrace technology to connect (who hasn’t joined a Zoom call?). We believed initiating a dialogue with pioneering sponsors and students was a sound approach to explore their innovative usage.

We engaged in a Zoom talk with FONR sponsor Jeri Pearcy. She and husband Jeff live in Milwaukee, supporting Nairobi’s student, Perpetual.

Our conversation (available in its entirety here on Illumini Podcast) resulted in a wonderful conversation, starting with how they first met in 2008 and continuing with how they have shared letters through the mail over the years. Today, both Perpetual and Jeri are coping with the pandemic.

They unveiled a profound revelation, demonstrating their mutual outlook on adapting to Covid-19’s challenges, despite differing circumstances. During the discussion on the Sponsor/Student Portal, Perpetual and Jeri explored the technology, finding it convenient and user-friendly. They expressed gratitude for email speed but also want to exchange photos, news, articles and school work more frequently.

Jeri is a retired nurse practitioner and teacher, and Perpetual is focused on post-secondary education as a systems and business analyst.  

The conversation encompassed benefits reaped by Jeri, a sponsor, and Perpetual, a sponsored student, through Friends of Ngong Road connections. Expressing the unspoken connection’s energy in writing is challenging. Yet, through Zoom, the palpable loving energy became evident.

We hope you enjoy listening in!

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Update from Nairobi: Food from Friends

Ngong Road Children’s Foundation’s main priority in our COVID-19 response is to focus on family food aid in Nairobi. We are calling this new initiative Food from Friends. In the course of a normal April, our program provides students with breakfast and lunch each weekday while they are on break from school as well as a hearty lunch on Saturdays during Saturday Program. We are no longer conducting these programs due to government directives on social distancing and avoiding gatherings. The children are at home with their families, many of whom are no longer working. 

We have been running the Food from Friends project where funds gathered are used to purchase food packages for families. We have approximately 300 families dependent on our program.  Each food packet contains 1 kg of beans 2kg of rice, 4kg of maize flour, and 500g of cooking fat. In the last two weeks, we have been able to issue food aid to around 200 families among which 72 of the neediest families have received food packets twice. 75% of our families have 3-5 people in a household and the food pack we give can only last them for a week. We are looking at being able to provide larger quantities of food that would last a family a month, thus minimizing the movements of parents coming for food aid every week.

Families that have received food have shared that they consider themselves so lucky to be part of this organization and so thankful for the food aid support.  

We thank our donors and well-wishers for your commitment to providing Food from Friends.  We are in this together and we shall overcome. Stay safe.

Kelvin Thuku
Program Manager
Ngong Road Children’s Foundation

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New COVID-19 Updates Page

Dear friends,

This week we are launching the “COVID-19 Updates” page on the Friends of Ngong Road website. So much is rapidly changing. Practically every moment we are trying to understand this pandemic from our own perspective and experiences and from the perspectives and experiences of others. We are adjusting to this new reality, and we are doing so together as a global community, with the realization that many of our human responses are shared.

We created “COVID-19 Updates” with the purpose of strengthening our connections. Our aim is to keep one another connected by providing updates on the well-being of our children and their families in Nairobi, as well as connecting fellow sponsors and supporters from around the globe. Here you will find timely and relevant updates on physical, emotional, nutritional, and financial issues. We will let you know what the organizations’ actions, plans, and priorities are, as well as ways you can help. And, as in all communities, it’s about supporting one another. 

For the past couple of weeks we’ve shared what our priorities are today; ensuring our children and their families are adequately nourished. We started by diverting resources and asking for help in supporting the Food from Friends campaign. 

We hope this page becomes the place where you can return for continued connection, read weekly updates, hear, watch and read personal stories coming from Nairobi, and discover ways you can help and be connected through the months ahead. Please visit www.ngongroad.org and click on the “COVID-19 Updates” button right in the middle of the home page. 

Having visited the program and children in Nairobi four times since 2012 as a photographer, videographer, and podcaster, I have learned that we each live what we believe to be our own “normal” lives and that some of those normals are as different as night and day. But, the lesson today’s pandemic may teach us all is we all are living a “new normal.” And wouldn’t it be wonderful if that included us being just a bit more connected, regardless of where we’re living?

Steve Kotvis
Volunteer