Update Archives - Page 14 of 31 - Friends of Ngong Road

February 11, 2023 By Sallyanne Atieno Leave a Comment

TechMates Update

Since the launch of TechMates in 2021, we have had over 15 students benefit from the program. As of January 2023, six TechMates had completed their learning internships and transitioned to project-based contracts and two additional graduates were on internship. The project-based TechMates successfully completed their six months internship and gained the necessary skills needed to secure contract work for Ngong Road Children’s Foundation (NRCF), Friends of Ngong Road (FoNR), Karibu Loo, Limited (KLL) and other external clients. One of the external clients, Lido Nation, has so far recruited three digital marketers from the program to assist with website translation and management, and act as community outreach officers to create awareness of the Cardano eco system locally in Kenya. Lido Nation also employs five developer-track TechMates part time, on a contract basis.

In February 2023, an intern joined the developer path, and recruitment for four alumni is underway. So far, we have eight TechMates on the project-based contract working for NRCF/FoNR and KLL. In total we have 12 trained TechMates while two have dropped out. Two TechMates won full scholarships to MEST/Meltwater entreprenuerial training in Accra, Ghana. Of the active TechMates, half have part-time jobs with Lido Nation. They polish the Lido Nation website as well as creating new features.

Two of the TechMates on the digital marketing path have been able to secure other external clients. One of them, Tabitha, is currently working for Vobyl Tea as an administrative and marketing person. She is responsible for communicating with customers, packaging product, as well as carrying out deliveries among other roles. The other digital marketing TechMate, Sallyanne, has started working for DirectEd as a consultant/project freelancer. She leads Twitter marketing campaigns and develops NFT-based fundraising strategies for DirectEd among other roles. These two TechMates are also leading blockchain operations at the Ngong Road Blockchain Lab.

All current TechMates have goals that they have set for themselves for this year. Some of the goals include becoming more skilled in software development, securing more clients, taking additional online courses, applying for masters scholarships, taking software engineering scholarship courses at ALX Africa and many more aspirations. We received computer donations from the Safaricom Foundation which will be very useful as we plan on supporting over 15 new beneficiaries this year. TechMates are making use of them and we are grateful for Safaricom’s donation, which will help students transform their lives. The program is progressing and will be restructured to meet market and client needs. The company is now considering adding more employment programs to help students and alumni succeed and transform their lives.

January 27, 2023 By Sallyanne Atieno Leave a Comment

2023 Alumni Camp

The Alumni Camp was held from Friday, 20th January 2023 To Sunday, 22nd January 2023 at the Duara Flamingo Camp, located in Elementaita, Nakuru (Lake Elementaita Lodge). The camp was intended to celebrate the accomplishments of the 2022 post-secondary graduates and welcome them to the alumni association as well as have their first Job preparedness training.

We had a total of 36 campers that included 31 alumni, 3 staff members and 2 facilitators from the organization. The alumni slept in tents and their meals were prepared by the hotel chefs. We had a number of activities and training that were meant to develop their employability skills as well as their emotional intelligence. There was a training session that was conducted by Be The Leader (BTL) on job interview skills, digital marketing, entrepreneurship skills and career development. The objective of the training was to teach them how to be outstanding during an interview, how to make them visible to employers via social media and the basics of starting a business.

There were also lots of team competition activities like crazy games and Olympics. The alumni got a chance to visit the Kariandusi prehistoric site and African Diatomite Industries Ltd. They learnt about the mining of diatomite (from skeletons of very tiny animals called diatoms) and its uses.

The camp was a success and we hope that the alumni got impacted positively from all the training and activities. We hope that they use the skills gained to better equip themselves for the employment and self-employment sectors.

January 6, 2023 By Sallyanne Atieno Leave a Comment

Class 8 candidates of 2022

In 2022, we had a total of 30 primary students (candidates) who sat for the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) examinations. This is an examination that marks the end of primary education and paves the way for students to pursue their secondary education. These particular students were among the second-last batch of learners in the country under the 8-4-4 system to sit for KCPE.

The examination usually takes a few days to complete and it took place between November 28th and December 1st 2022. The top student in the country scored 431 out of 500 while of our candidates, the top student in the organization was Louse who scored 398 out of 500 marks! The mean grade for the class was 322 out of 500 which is above average performance.

These students will soon be joining form one possibly at the end of this month in different learning institutions. We would like to congratulate them and wish them all the best as they transition into their secondary education.

December 22, 2022 By Sallyanne Atieno Leave a Comment

First Class Honors

This year has been incredible for us in terms of getting exceptional performances from our students and Sallyanne is one of those students who has made us extremely proud. Sallyanne has become the first student ever since the organization started to get first class honors! This is the highest achievement ever made by a post-secondary student.

Sallyanne joined Kabarak University in May 2018 and was admitted to the Bachelor of Mass Communication. Her end-of-semester results showed that she was excelling in her studies. In September of 2021, she was attached at a local radio station where she worked for three months and December marked the end of her studies.

In January 2022, Sallyanne was among the first students to join the TechMates program where she specialized in Digital Marketing. She has since been creating content for both the NRCF and FoNR websites as well as managing the content on both social media pages and she helps in training new Digital Marketing TechMates who join the program. Through the program, she joined Lido Nation, a Cardano staking pool, gaining valuable work experience and networking opportunities.

She works for Lido Nation as a content writer, a website translator, and a social media manager and she is also a trainer for mentees who would like to learn more about Blockchain. She experienced the greatest highlight of her time at Lido Nation when she became a co-proposer in a funded proposal.

Sallyanne graduated on the 16th of December 2022 making her a journalist by profession. She received an award during the annual AGM as the first student to get first-class honors. Her role model is Larry Madowo and she hopes to become an equally great journalist. She has set the pace for our post-secondary students and we hope that many will follow suit. Congratulations Sallyanne!