Friends of Ngong Road

We empower Nairobi children living in poverty to transform their lives through education and support, leading to employment.

Search Results for: saturday program

By Leave a Comment

Meet our new Case Manager: Wence

“The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet” – this quote would best describe Wenceslaus right from childhood.He lived with his grandmother, the sole breadwinner, and had a difficult childhood, because his grandmother struggled to provide for himself and the family. Wence joined the Ngong Road program in 2009 and his case manager described him as being “polite, well-disciplined, and impressive”.

His leadership skills evident in high school, including dorm and hockey team captainships at Parklands High School. He took major steps even as a young person to become a visionary leader.He pioneered the Youth Peer Providers (YPP) program, a crucial component of students’ Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) training.

Wence is loved by especially the youngest students in the program and takes pride in being a major contributor and facilitator of the Saturday programs. At Kabete National Polytechnic College, he studied social work and community development while volunteering as a facilitator for the Saturday program. He would interact with the kids and created a strong bond, not yet knowing that he would soon get the chance to work with the kids as their case manager.

Wence’s love and commitment to work during his internship led to his hiring as a case manager in the primary department in 2022. He enjoys working as a case manager to express gratitude for the organization that transformed his life and provided him with education. Wence hopes to accomplish a lot for the organization and for himself as he maneuvers through and explores his career.

Thanks to Friends of Ngong Road and Ngong Road Children’s Foundation for transforming this young man’s life through education.

Welcome, Wence!

Friends of Ngong Road 2020 Kenya Visit – day 3 – Saturday Program – Introduction to Ultimate

By Leave a Comment

Upgrades to the Sponsor Portal

Photos of Your Student

For a long time, we’ve struggled to efficiently share student photos. We were able to print and send portraits to sponsors, but we had no means of sharing the thousands of photos we have of students from school, camp, Saturday Program, and everyday life.

We are excited to have launched a new photo management system that allows students to tag themselves in photos, quickly linking them to you in the portal. This gives sponsors a more timely glimpse into the transformation of their student’s life. 

To see photos of your student, simply click the “photos” tab on your portal dashboard and click on a photo to enlarge it.  Use the arrows within the picture to scroll through additional pictures.  A picture is worth a thousand words!     

Communicating with Your Student

The portal is the best way to communicate with your student. The “inbox” tab allows you to easily send and receive messages. We’ve recently added video capabilities. This allows you and your student to use your phone or computer’s webcam to send short videos to each other. Students love to see videos of their sponsors. 

Students receive messages and videos through the portal much sooner than handwritten letters. Easily connect with your student anytime, sending a thoughtful “I’ve been thinking about you” message, simplifying your communication.

More Enhancements 

We will continue to make portal improvements to increase communication and provide useful information understanding.   We are going to add tips on communicating with your student, FAQs, program overviews, and more. We’re also planning educational programs where sponsors will be able to get together, learn more about Kenya, our programs, and network with each other. 

If you have ideas for new features, let us know.  If you haven’t been on the portal recently, log back on to see the changes and know that more is to come.

By Leave a Comment

Help Transform Lives – Contribute to Our Annual Appeal!

The students we serve face more challenges than most of us can imagine. They learn early on that to survive they must embrace resilience, facing their challenges with hope, drive, passion, courage, and kindness.

We are grateful to all our sponsors who make classroom education possible for individual students.  Sponsorships cover the costs of school fees and uniforms, but Friends of Ngong Road also provides unique program support to empower students to succeed and transform their lives. These include our Life Skills Program, career counseling, employment support, basic medical care, the Saturday Program, computer certification, case managers, etc.  Our Annual Appeal directly supports these initiatives. 

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 $170,000 by year-end. 

Your support will be DOUBLED thanks to the $85,000 matching gift from the Ted and Kathy Truscott Family Foundation.  

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

By Leave a Comment

Over 20 students have lost their sponsors. Consider sponsoring an additional student. Meet Leon.

Over the past year, more than 20 students have lost their sponsors. This is due to a variety of reasons, including the economic impact of COVID 19. The students are continuing their education, but are in need of a new sponsor.

This is Leon’s story.

Leon is 16 years old and attending Karima High School, a boys-only boarding secondary school that is one of the best national schools. He has been in the program for eight years and his sponsor recently needed to discontinue support.  His sponsor’s support helped him get to this level of education and gain leadership skills through the Life Skills program, summer camp, and the Saturday program. He was a student leader in the primary department and also a squad leader during the 2019 summer camp. Leon has become assertive and gained self-confidence through these leadership roles.

Leon lives with his grandmother and two aunts. The grandmother makes beaded items, sews sweaters, crotchets tablecloths for an income. She also works as a Community Health Volunteer.

Leon’s family lives in a two-roomed house in Ngando slums. The house is made of old rusty iron sheets. Unlike most families in the slum, Leon’s home has electricity so he can study comfortably during school breaks. They buy water for domestic use from a nearby vendor. Leon sleeps on a bed. The family uses charcoal or kerosene stove to cook their meals as they are the most affordable. They share a bathroom and pit latrine with their neighbors.

Leon is an intelligent, focused, and hardworking student. He performs well academically and is usually among the top-performing students in his class. He would like to become a pilot in the future. He is outgoing, confident, and self-driven. 

Sponsors discontinue support for a variety of reasons. We have committed to supporting students who enter our program until they finish their education. So when they lose a sponsor it’s important for us to find a new sponsor. If you already sponsor a student, would you consider sponsoring another one whose sponsor left? We are fortunate that someone has stepped up to sponsor Leon. But there are many other waiting students like him who need your help to ensure they can continue their studies and achieve their dreams. Explore all the waiting students here.

By Leave a Comment

Greetings from Kelvin

Hello Friends and supporters of Ngong Road,

Students graduate

In the second quarter of the year, the focus was on Class 8 and Form 4 (grades 8 and 12) since they did their final National exams in April 2021 and received their results. Given the Covid-19 impact on education in 2020, our students performed fairly well. For Form 4 students, 5 qualified to join University, 9 in college for a Diploma, and 11 in technical institutes for Certificate courses. For Class 8 students, eleven students scored above 300 marks while six scored below 300 out of 500. We held graduation ceremonies for these students in May. The purpose of the ceremony is to celebrate the milestone achieved as well as orient the students for the next education Journey (secondary for class 8 graduates and Post-secondary for Form 4 graduates). The students were invited together with their parents and during the ceremony, they were required to sign commitment forms for the next level of education. The class 8 graduates will be joining the secondary school in August while Form 4 graduates will join colleges and Universities in September 2021.

Move to a new office

The months of May and June were equally busy with the office move. This was necessitated by the fact the former location was a residential estate and the members were concerned about the organization’s traffic of people given the COVID-19 situation. We had to look for commercial space and our compound. We were lucky to get a spacious bungalow next to our Saturday program field where we signed a 5-year lease agreement and moved in at the beginning of June. The staff and students are excited about the new campus because of its outdoor space and welcoming ambiance. Our students have more outdoor space for training and workshops. Our staff has a conducive working space in the main house. 

Planning for Elimu Hub

We are planning to construct a student resource center at the new campus in the 3rd quarter of the year. We are naming the student resource center “Elimu Hub” which means Education Hub. You can read more about this on the website under “Elimu Hub”. 

COVID-19 effects on NRCF

Since April 2020, NRCF has monitored and assessed the effects of Covid-19 on our students and their families. Case managers reach out and interview NRCF households to monitor their situations. Here are some findings from the most recent survey completed in May 2021.

  • 95% of the households have someone working compared to 81% in October 2020 and 70% of families in August 2020
  • The income of 58% of those households has decreased due to the COVID-19 impact
  • 88% have an average home situation rating which means they have partially recovered from 2020 COVID-19 impacts
  • 77% have average support which means they have a supportive family which is important for their educational  success

Family Assessment Charts