Emmanuel joined the program in 2010. Having to pay for his education as a child was a tremendous challenge for his family. Friends of Ngong Road gave Emmanuel a sponsor and enabled him to continue his academic career.

Emmanuel was transferred to one of our focus elementary schools immediately after being admitted to the program, which he considered a far better school than his previous school. After completing his primary education, he attended a boys boarding school in Nairobi, where he completed his secondary education and joined the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology. His graduation was originally scheduled for November last year but was postponed to July this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Emmanuel has a Business Administration Certificate and a University certification in Business Information Technology. Emmanuel is currently interning at Ngong Road Children’s Foundation as a tech intern.

In 2021, Ngong Road Children’s, and Friends of Ngong Road conducted a survey of our first 113 alumni and learned that 80% of alumni had one or more jobs between May 2020 – May 2021. This was an especially challenging time for employment due to the effects of COVID-19 restrictions on the Kenyan economy.  While encouraging to learn such a high percentage of alumni had had jobs, at the time of the survey, only 46% of respondents were employed. Among those employed 76% had a job in the formal economy. Among the unemployed, 90% had worked in the informal economy, and when COVID hit, their work disappeared.  

The new emphasis on employment, an updated mission statement

These results led our board of directors to conclude we must do better. Since our inception, we have understood that Kenya’s formal economy has very high unemployment levels (about 40%) and that this last stage of life transformation, employment,  would be most challenging.  We have now made “employment” a fourth program pillar in our overall strategy (along with Education, Student Health & Well-Being, and Supportive Community) and updated our mission statement to reflect our increased focus on helping graduates get and keep a job.  Our updated mission statement is:

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

Programs to support employment objective 

We currently have several initiatives in place or in development that support our goal of ensuring 75% of the alumni are employed within six months of graduation.  Some of these programs begin in high schools, such as Life Skills training and learning about career options.  Other programs are focused on high school and post-secondary graduates, including:

• Job placement – through the support of the Kenyan Board of Directors who make referrals to organizations within their network.
• Karibu Loo Associate program – Karibu Loo (KL) is a portable sanitation business (owned by FoNR) that hires our graduates as part-time associates to help with the operations of the business, learning skills of organization, time management, and working as part of a team. Karibu Loo has also hired graduates for full-time roles in marketing and operations.  Since its inception, more than 120 graduates have been employed by Karibu Loo.
• Sales Academy – an intensive two-month sales training and six-month paid internship through a partnership with Yusudi Sales Academy. Two students will be joining this program in April as a pilot to see how successful it will be.
• TechMates Programme – A tech internship program where STEM Graduates are taken through an “on-the-job training” on digital marketing, website development, and management using WordPress, Google Ads, as well as advanced programming. The interns are later linked with external companies for contract jobs. 
• Entrepreneurship training – Targeting alumni who are interested in starting a small enterprise by providing basic business creation training and linking them to funding opportunities. 

We will update more information about the TechMates Programme.  In the next five years, we expect to launch more initiatives focused on helping graduates get jobs.  We know that when you begin life in extreme poverty the only way your life is truly transformed is if you get (and keep) a job.

Change of Saturday program field

We are happy to announce that we now have a bigger, and safer field for our Saturday program activities. Compared to our previous field, the current field has grass everywhere hence minimal chances of students getting hurt while playing. The location also favors students residing in Ng’ando as they can now comfortably work short distances to attend the Saturday program. This change has been in place since the beginning of January.

Expressive Art

To be able to provide better support for our students we need to connect with them emotionally. That is why NRCF in collaboration with Harambee Arts Kenya and Kenya Association of Professional Counselors (KAPC) organized an expressive art program, where our children are allowed to express their emotions such as happiness, appreciation, or even sadness through coloring. The activities are usually fun and at the very end, all our students learn that they are the stars of their own stories. Thank you Harambee Arts Kenya Association of Professional Counselors (KAPC).

Financial literacy

Students who learn to manage their finances early often become adults who are better equipped to live independently and that’s why we have embarked on teaching our kids to make good financial decisions. Our students love the financial lessons and they’ve already started making actual implementations from what they are taught

Braeburn donations

Braeburn primary and secondary school-Lavington is an international school in Nairobi Kenya that teaches children from age 3 to 18, following the National Curriculum of England and Wales. It is a member of the Braeburn Group of International Schools. We started partnering with Braeburn in 2016 when they gave towards our annual Christmas food aid appeal. They have been giving food aid packages since then. The relationship was developed through Leah Switzer who worked as a teacher at the school back then.    

Library books

Braeburn heard about our “Elimu Hub project” and committed to supporting us to furnish the library section with books where they donated over 4,000 books on 5th February 2022. The books comprise all genres (fiction and non-fiction books, Biographies, course work, African Literature, and Science & nature. The books have been stored awaiting completion of Elimu hub where they will be shelved for access by over 300 students in the program.

Food aid

Every year Braeburn also donates food staff to our students and their families and this year was no exception. We received a donation of 100 packages of food staff that were issued to our families. The support comes in handy for our families and as always they are always grateful.

We appreciate Braeburn Primary School manager (Joanna Garner) for the continued support over the years. Braeburn is helping transform lives here at Ngong Road Children’s Foundation.

Hello, The last quarter of this year has been a busy time for staff in NRCF as they reflect on the year’s achievements as well as the following year’s plan. We note that there is much to celebrate, from moving to a new office to students resuming school after the 2020 COVID-19 school shutdown. It has been more than just surviving. It meant embracing resilience and dealing with the challenges posed by the pandemic.

Compressed school calendar leads to unrest

The last quarter was the second term for students in primary and high school. This is due to the change in the school calendar and the introduction of a 4th term to make up for the lost year in 2020. This meant that students would stay longer in school with minimal school breaks. It also meant a high focus on academics and fewer extracurricular activities. However, this did not augur well with the students. During the second term, Kenya witnessed a high rate of student unrest characterized by strikes and arson in schools. More than 31 learning institutions were burnt down this term alone.  

Four of our partner schools were affected; Loise Nanyuki (2 students attending), Kiriathiani school (1 student), Karima boys (2 students), and Makwa boys (13 students). The students have since resumed school but had to pay a fee to rebuild the damaged dormitories. Due to the unrest, the government had to send all students for a midterm break in November as students attributed the unrest to the fact that there was no school break in the term. Our staff continued to guide and counsel students especially during school visits in order for them to remain focused on their studies. 

Kenya is still struggling with COVID-19

We conducted a second home assessment of our families where we learned that 86% of the households had someone working compared to 95% in July, while 14% had no one working compared to 5% in July 2021. 76% of the households had an income decrease compared to 57% in July, while 5% had an income increase compared to 10% in July. 

The country has made extensive efforts to bring down the positivity rate as well as increase vaccine uptake. As of November, 9% of the adult population had been vaccinated with a target of 10% by the end of the year.  At NRCF, all staff has been fully vaccinated.  

We look forward to another successful year with you, our supporters, and our beneficiaries.

Best to all of you this holiday season,

Kelvin Thuku

Programme Manager

Ngong Road Children’s Foundation