Friends of Ngong Road

Providing education and support to Nairobi children living in poverty whose families are affected by HIV/AIDS.

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January 13, 2021 By Michon Garrett Leave a Comment

Students are going back to school!

All of our students received face masks and hand sanitizer, along with new shoes and school supplies. Boarding school students also received necessities such as soap, toilet paper, toothbrush, and laundry supplies. 

Schools are expected to follow government guidelines.

Some of the guidelines include:

  • Distancing of students in the classroom.
  • No family visits to students in boarding school (this includes our case managers, who will have to do check-ins by phone). 
  • Masks and adequate hand-washing stations.

You can read the full Press Release from the Kenyan President here.

December 13, 2020 By Michon Garrett Leave a Comment

COVID-19 Assessment Results – November 2020

In November, case managers completed another round of calls to families to find out the status of the household health, finances, and student’s schooling. The students are very much looking forward to going back to school in January. Kenya, and Africa as a whole, seems to be managing this pandemic much better than the US – in fact, the Washington Post released an article about it last week. Most of our students are either receiving assignments from their schools, or are completing supplemental assignments given to them by their case managers. Many of the students have also started completing book reports – which you can find in your sponsor portal in the ‘Handwritten Letters & Essays’ section. 

One of the biggest highlights of this month’s round of calls is that the number of families who are receiving zero income is down significantly. This means that most of the families have found ways to make money, even given their incredible challenges. As of November, only 11% of families didn’t have anyone working – compared to the first round of calls in June when 29% of families reported that no one in their family was able to find work. All of the families have expressed deep gratitude for the food support they have received this year. It has lifted a tremendous burden while the students have all been home from school. 

This week we will be publishing the individual results to the sponsor portal. Keep an eye out for them so you can read about how your student and their family is doing, and be sure to write a note or record a video message for your student to encourage them as they head back to school in a few weeks. 

December 13, 2020 By Michon Garrett Leave a Comment

Back to School!

We are thrilled for the students in Kenya as in a few short weeks, they will all go back to school. Students will resume where they left off in March of 2020 and start their second trimester. 

Instead of having 3 trimesters and month-long breaks after each term, students in Kenya will have 4 terms for the next two years, and the breaks will be shorter. The purpose of this schedule is to allow for all the students to start where they left off in 2020, and to resume the normal schedule again as quickly as possible. If all goes according to plan, students will again have three terms per year and the normal breaks starting in 2023. 

We will do our best to lay out what the current plan is (below), and if you wish, you can read the Press Release from the Ministry of Education here. And, as we all know from how chaotic it has been here in the US to figure out schooling of young students, this is the current plan, but the situation could change at any time.

2021 School Schedule:

2nd TrimesterBreak3rd TrimesterBreak1st Trimester*Break2nd TrimesterHoliday Break
1/4/21- 3/19/213/20/21- 5/9/215/10/21- 7/16/217/17/21- 7/25/217/26/21- 10/1/2110/2/21- 10/10/2110/11/21-12/23/2112/24/21-1/2/22
11 weeks7 weeks10 weeks1 week10 weeks1 week11 weeks10 days
Grades 8 and 12 national testingGrades 8 and 12 on break

The initial break in March is longer than the others due to the national exams that the 8th and 12th graders will be completing. In Kenya, the tests are so extensive that they require weeks of actual testing, and then multiple weeks to grade the exams and publish the results. 

*In July, all students will move up and begin a new school year. This means that the students who just completed testing in 12th grade will begin the transition to post secondary, and all the other students will move up a grade level. 

December 13, 2020 By Michon Garrett Leave a Comment

Food from Friends Wrap Up

One of our biggest successes this year was the Food from Friends campaign. In March, we explained to our supporters that due to the students staying home from school (where they normally receive two meals a day), and the lack of options for income for their families, we needed to raise the money to be able to feed every single family (and some alumni) in our program. You stepped up in an incredible way, and we are so thrilled to say that we accomplished our goal. We hoped to raise $80,000 to feed 350 families from April through December. With your help, we were able to raise $88,000 and feed 373 children and their families – a total of about 5,000 food packets. 

So many of you donated to this cause. From $20 to our $10,000 match, some of you even choosing to donate on a recurring basis each month. Thank you, thank you, thank you! If you are a sponsor and you have read your student’s COVID assessment report on the sponsor portal, many of the families answer the “anything else we should know?” question by thanking the case managers for the food support. For most of them, it is the only way they have been able to survive the pandemic and resulting lack of income. 

We are so happy that the students are able to return to school in January, and that those schools will once again be able to provide them with the two meals a day that they need to thrive and learn. We have built a robust ‘emergency food fund’ into our 2021 budget so that we can continue to support families who need it. But, the families are reporting that they are back to work, and with students going back to school, we can turn our attention to how we will pay for an extra school term for every student in 2021 and 2022.

December 12, 2020 By Michon Garrett Leave a Comment

Don’t forget to contribute to our Annual Appeal!

Donate

Thank you to the many friends who have already donated to our annual appeal! We are making great progress but still need additional supporters to achieve our goal of raising $150,000 by year end. 

These funds are critical in supporting costs not covered by student sponsorship, including areas critical to education and development such as the safety and well-being programs, the computer lab, the library and the Saturday programs.

Your support will be DOUBLED thanks to the $75,000 matching gift from the Ted and Kathy Truscott Family Foundation. You can also consider a gift of stock to fit in with your year-end tax planning.  

It’s not too late! Help us transform lives.

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Friends of Ngong Road
PO Box 581308
Minneapolis, MN 55458
(612) 568-4211 | [email protected]

 

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