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

Term 1 Holiday (Primary and Secondary)

Our primary and secondary school students were on a ten-day school break after successfully completing their first term. We are glad to report that non has contracted COVID 19 so far since schools reopened despite difficulties faced by various schools in ensuring students are always observing MOH guidelines. As usual, the respective case managers had programs organized for the students during that break. The various programs during the holiday are has highlighted below:

I. Drug and substance awareness

Enlightened the students on the commonly abused drugs in our community, their effects, and long-run consequences on their lives such a dropping from school.

III. Career guidance plan

Aimed at assisting Form 2s and 3s to start thinking about their career paths early in advance so that they can be well informed when making and implementing educational and occupational choices later in life.

II. Academic motivation

Guest speaker, Sam Vidambu, equipped learners with the mindset and skills to focus on progress, success, achievement, and results.

IV. Sponsor communication

To enhance the sponsor experience, students are required to send at least one video message to their sponsor updating them about school and general life updates. The high school students utilized their break to record video messages to their sponsors.

Alumni – Entrepreneurial development

Thirteen of our alumni attended a workshop on recycling plastic at Vintz plastic facilitated by Aruna Varsani (NRCF Board Member). Such opportunities are aimed at empowering our alumni to become economically and socially active. A lot was learned during that exciting tour and as a result, five alumni were interested to venture into the business of supplying waste plastic to the company.

The alumni are also in the process of planning for their end-of-year gathering which aims at discussing various issues concerning them and the best ways to move forward.

ELIMU HUB

We are happy to announce that the construction of the proposed ELIMU HUB was approved and the project kicked off.

Elimu Hub will operate on the NRCF “campus”, creating a physical place where students can support one another, where alumni can return to network and mentor younger students, and where Wepowerment can happen.

Everyone is super excited about the launch of the facility especially our students.

Read more about ELIMU HUB

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Background story

Stacy is a proud beneficiary of our organization. She was raised by her grandparents. Despite the challenges of her childhood, she always wore a smile and was known for her talkative nature. Her dream was to become a beautician, but she ended up in a different career as an events coordinator, which she is even happier in and compliments her attributes. She now has a dream of offering her services to the company she works for globally. She is a role model for many students in our organization. She has organized a couple of donations to our organization from various companies as a way of giving back. Keep up the great work, Stacy; we are proud of you.