August 2015 Camp
In August we had our annual camp. This is the time we concentrate on letter writing to the sponsors and also making sure that children learn about leadership skills, interactive games, and hiking, among other things.
Tom has always attended Camp every year since its inception and through his leadership skills we have always learned a lot. This time we were able to work on Salesforce.com before camp started in order to make sure that it remains our managing tool for our work in Kenya. Some of the things that Tom helped on Salesforce are home visits reports, school visit reports, and letter reports as well as making sure that it is a tool that we can use on the ground to manage the work better in the future.
This year we went hiking around Mt. Longonot as well as boat riding where children were able to see hippopotami at Lake Naivasha. It was a wonderful time being with the children and we got to understand them even better.
Visit of Karen and Susan
Karen and Susan who are on the U.S. Board of directors visited us from 29th November to 5th December. Apart from bringing greetings from the U.S., we got to learn a lot. We covered a lot of mileage in post-secondary issues like making sure we are on track with the new graduates on how we will make sure that they get enrolled in colleges on time. We were also able to review the scholarship committee guidelines.
Karen was also very involved with the library and she gave us very good ideas on fundraising which we will implement come the year 2016. She worked a lot with our librarian, Norah, in making sure that the library is working and maintained for the benefit of the children. All in all, I would like to give my gratitude for their visit. Every time we have a visitor from the U.S. we feel blessed because we get to learn a lot.
Karibu Loo ltd.
I am very happy to report that 24 students from our program are now benefitting from part-time jobs from Karibu Loo. Apart from working for pay they also learn about timekeeping in employment, interaction with customers as they narrate their stories as well as being in a working environment. We are happy with Karibu Loo because all the income are to benefit NRCF in its mission.
Harrambe/Graduation.
Every year we normally hold a local fundraiser (Harambee). This year it took place on 5th December and Karen and Susan were able to attend just before they left for the U.S.A. We managed to get food donation of 744 packets of maize flour from Kimfay, a company in Kenya who have been very supportive of our program, and 248 containers of shortening from Bimeda ( from our volunteer, Chris Adams) who are also a strong supporter of our mission and 100 food packages from Braeburn School where Leah Switzer (wife of our Karibu Loo General Manager, Michael Switzer) works. In total, we managed to raise Ksh. 344,000 both in cash and in-kind donations.
Peter Ndungu
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
