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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Notes from Paula

Dear friends,

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have worked hard to understand the changing landscape in Kenya and work with our staff and schools to devise a suitable strategy. Students all attended school during term one (Kenyan academic year begins in January) but lost about a month of in-person education as Kenyan schools closed the week of March 16. Since that time, Ngong Road Children’s Foundation (NRCF) case managers have remained in contact with all families in our program and we have supported in-home and online education to the extent possible. We began regular food distribution in late March and are now feeding 300 families on a regular schedule. Our offices have been kept open on a limited basis and we continue to monitor the changing situation.

School Reopening Schedule Delayed

On July 7, we learned that primary and secondary schools in Kenya will not reopen in 2020. President Uhuru Kenyatta announced this change from the prior plan, which had been to phase students back to school beginning in September. Since the COVID-19 case count in Kenya continues to rise, the teacher’s unions objected and the authorities have realized that school in 2020 is unrealistic. President Kenyatta announced that the 2020 school year will be repeated in 2021, so if a student was in class 7 in 2020, s/he will repeat class 7 in 2021 and so forth for all grades.

Plans for post-secondary education are a bit less clear.  The government has said these schools may commence in September if they meet safety guidelines. Since many post-secondary schools are privately owned we expect each school to commence at their own pace, perhaps beginning with online education and phasing into in-person instruction. Our plan is to manage this on a student-by-student basis and communicate with sponsors as we learn about each student’s situation.

Join Us for a Zoom Q&A July 29 

We are planning to host a Zoom Question and Answer session on July 29 at 4 PM CDT. To register, please click here. The purpose of this session is to answer your questions about the situation in Kenya. One thing we are all learning during this pandemic is that we can make plans, but they may not come to fruition. We will be communicating with sponsors over the coming weeks about your sponsorship contributions.  

Special Programs Re-starting

We plan to commence both Life Skills and Sexual and Reproductive Health education sessions in August, subject to approval by the local authorities. We will continue to distribute food aid and to support students’ efforts to learn online and stay engaged in their own education. 

Thank you for your continued support. The pandemic is difficult for all of us. Students in Kenya are experiencing so many new and challenging barriers to their success. Thank you for sticking with them as we all work to get to the other side of COVID-19.

Regards,

Paula Meyer
Founder and President
Friends of Ngong Road

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Letter from Kelvin

Greetings from Kenya!

Hope you are all keeping safe during these trying times. It’s been three months since the first case of COVID-19 was reported in Kenya and now we have crossed the 7,000 mark with the peak projected to be in September. We are grateful that over the last three months we had no positive cases reported among our staff, students or families. However, it was just a matter of time and this June we had our very first case of COVID-19 in one of our families. This is quite worrying given that the families are very vulnerable and many are living with preexisting conditions.  

Most families are out of work and rely on us for food

The general impact of COVID-19 has been hard hitting where 90% of our families no longer have stable income. The biggest challenge has been food and rent. The organization has continued supporting approximately 300 families with food aid every month thanks to donations from our supporters.  The families have been very grateful for this support and it gives them hope of seeing tomorrow. 

Primary and secondary schools closed until 2021

The school closure has been extended with no hope of reopening until 2021. Our students continue to study from home which is challenging given the circumstances our families live in.  We are glad to report at least 80% of them have been able to study from home despite the challenges posed. We have continued supporting students by printing out assignments and scheduling appointments for computer access. We also started issuing students with literature books from our library. Over 200 literature books to students have been issued while observing safety measures. 

Some high school graduates and post-secondary students continue studies

The 2019 high school graduates were able to go through the scholarship process and come up with feasible career plans in hope of joining colleges and universities in September, 2020. Most post-secondary institutions have opted to start online studies via Zoom and a number of our students are ongoing with such classes. 

Our staff is focused on providing support

NRCF staff have continued to support the families and students through check in calls done every month since April. In May the staff focused on updating sponsors while in June they continued with check in calls with the families. We continue to operate with a skeleton office encouraging staff to work from home and keep safe. 

We want to take this opportunity to appreciate all our supporters for their continued donations during this trying time. We are in this together and hope to overcome the crisis and continue with our mission of transforming lives.

Stay safe!

Kelvin Thuku
Programme Manager
Ngong Road Children’s Foundation

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Sponsor Story

I am Edna Shadrack Ouma and I live in Nairobi, Kenya and I am amongst the earliest members of the Ngong Road Children Association (NRCA), which has since changed to Ngong Road Children Foundation (NRCF) earlier this year. I was born and brought up in the Lutheran church and met the late pastor Peter Ndungu in one of our Lutheran congregations. Peter Ndungu was my pastor before he left to co-found NRCA with Paula Meyer in 2006.

Having the call to serve the less fortunate, I was touched by his passion and joined the association. I initially assisted Peter in finding resources for five kids until we realized that the demand was overwhelming as the number of children looking for sponsorship kept increasing. We decided, with the help of Paula Meyer, to constitute a Kenyan Board whereby I became one of its members. From there, the organization has grown and now there are hundreds of children being sponsored and supported in their journeys.

I offered to sponsor a child and God blessed me with Rashid Omar. I started sponsoring Rashid Omar in 2012 when he was in second grade and he is now in his freshman year of high school. During the 8 years of my sponsorship, I have seen a transformation of Rashid and I am glad that I took up this initiative. He started out as a very shy little boy and has blossomed into a social and capable young man. I am very much looking forward to seeing what kind of a man he will become and feel grateful to be able to provide support for him.

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COVID-19 Update

If you have been following our updates and world news, you may be aware of the current situation in Kenya. The cases are continuing to increase and the families in our program (as well as most people living in the slums) are facing a lack of food, an inability to pay utilities, and many are facing eviction as a result of not being able to pay rent. The situation is dynamic and constantly changing. We are doing what we can to keep you updated. For more information on what we are doing and to hear updates from the department heads in Kenya, visit our COVID-19 Updates page.

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An alumni department update by Emmanuel

Listen to the full interview

Dear Friends,

Greetings from Nairobi, Kenya!

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the lives of our alumni have been affected. A number of them are currently not working as the virus continues impacting our economy. This is especially true in the tourism and hotel industries where many of our students work; although it cuts across many sectors. The virus impact has forced them to work remotely from their homes or go on unpaid leave while waiting for direction from their respective employers on the way forward.

At first there was a lot of uncertainty but, with resilience, I believe we are going to overcome and go back to our normal lives. We have been reaching out to the alumni through short messages, WhatsApp group chats and phone calls to know how they are progressing. Luckily none of alumni nor their immediate family members have contracted the virus, for which we are really grateful.

We are continuing to create relationships with employers virtually to find internship and job opportunities for our alumni. We are able to do this through email and phone calls to prospective organizations.

For those who have been affected, we have been able to offer food packages to support them during hard economic times. So far we have reached 35 alumni through this initiative.
We do appreciate your support during these difficult moments and making the dream of the transformation of lives a reality.

Yours sincerely,

Emmanuel Mukasa
Alumni Department
Ngong Road Children’s Foundation