During this hard time of COVID-19, the IT department in Kenya has come up with ways of supporting our students. We have decided to allow students to access the computer lab two days a week on staggered schedules to maintain social distancing. In addition, the team is supporting students in the following ways:

• We are printing school assignments and class review notes for Grades 4 through 8 for primary students and Forms 1 through 4 for secondary students and they come to the office to pick them up. We also send notes and instructions through WhatsApp to reduce the number of times students must come to the office. 
• Supporting post secondary students as they have been busy doing research on their career courses and preparing for scholarship interviews.
• We are facilitating virtual interviews between post-secondary students and the Scholarship Committee as they request support for their post-secondary education programs.
• Students who are doing online classes via Zoom have been given internet access in the computer lab.
• We are facilitating student/sponsor email communication by allowing students to come to the lab and reply to emails.
• We are posting news, study materials, and tips for keeping safe frequently on our website and social media.

In total we receive 10 to 35 students every week and all have to be scheduled by their case managers for specific appointment times. We only allow 7 students per session and each student spends not more than one hour in the lab depending on what he or she came to do. The IT department, in collaboration with other departments, will continue supporting the students while observing all safety guidelines.

In the post-secondary department, we have a total of 124 students enrolled in different institutions. Out of this number 33 are waiting to join University or college for higher education learning. They will be interviewing with the Scholarship Committee this week where they are all required to present their post-secondary education plan.

All our students have been contacted and they are well and safe together with their families. We are happy to report that 70% of the students have managed to study online while the rest continue to carry on with assignments that are sent through the school portal or WhatsApp. For students who do not have access to the internet and laptops, we have managed to schedule them at the computer lab. There they can access the internet and continue with online studies while observing  safety guidelines.

In addition to school work, students have continued to rediscover themselves and are engaged in new hobbies like online writing, cycling, beadwork activities. Others assist their siblings with homework and help with house chores duties.

Through the support of our sponsors, donors, and well-wishers we were able to issue food to 130 families this week. We maintained contact with students and their families through a phone call to check on their well-being.

Due to joblessness and lack of casual day labor, the crime rate has increased in some areas as the situation has become increasingly worse. Some families have been threatened by their landlords and asked to vacate their houses if they can’t afford to pay rent. 

Students spend most of their time indoors busy doing school assignments, revision studies and also helping out with simple house chores like cooking and cleaning duties. Staying indoors keeps them from negative peer pressure. Students get assignments from teachers through WhatsApp, and we help in printing out the assignments and revision materials. The children also tune in to education programs aired on local radio and television channels as they have proved to be very helpful. 

Families know they should stay indoors though this has been challenging due to congestion in the slums where there isn’t any social distancing possible and wearing of masks is not observed. Most parents/guardians have lost their jobs, but Ngong Road Children Foundation has put a smile on their face.

Thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely,

Mary Wanjiru
Senior Case Manager

The Food from Friends initiative has been going well. Today we issued 73 packs to 73 families. Most parents/guardians of children in the program have lost their jobs, therefore it is a hard and trying time for these families given the nature of their existence is a hand-to-mouth life.

On top of not being able to feed themselves, these families are now faced with the challenge of rent payment with some landlords threatening to evict. Some have received notice to vacate by the end of the month. We are working with the local authorities to help out in such cases by talking to the landlords and advising our parents to join with other tenants in the negotiations with landlords as opposed to individual negotiations.

We are working closely with our primary schools to ensure that our students continue learning from home. The schools have printed revision materials that were received by all students. In preparation for the important national exam at the end of the year, we are collaborating in an effort to ensure our candidates are well prepared. The President and the Education Cabinet Secretary have both informed citizens that the exams are still going to take place as scheduled. 

Since internet access is a challenge to our parents, most of our students are unable to access the ongoing media lessons the Education Ministry have placed on television and radio. Instead, the schools send us revision papers and marking instructions on WhatsApp. We print them and pass them on to the parents. The parents, therefore, are in charge of marking the work and helping in the revision process. 

We are glad to report that even though there are a few confirmed cases of COVID-19 within our locality (Dagoretti slum) none of our students, parents/guardians or families have tested positive. 

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our sponsors and supporters for the important contributions they have been giving us. Keep safe. Thank you!

Best regards,

Tunda Lepore 
Senior Case Manager
Primary Department

Ngong Road Children’s Foundation’s main priority in our COVID-19 response is to focus on family food aid. 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 the 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 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