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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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

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An IT department Update from James Kyalo

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.

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A post-secondary update from Joy

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.