May 20, 2010

Tree planting resumes in the Aberdares! Hooray!

Hello everybody - as you know our friends of the Kawama Youth Group, who are planting trees in the Aberdare mountains, had all sorts of problems in the last year due to a terrible drought that killed almost all the trees in their nursery and made all plantings impossible for many months (see the story here). Fortunately the rain has now come back to Kenya, and the Kawama people have at last been able to resume planting trees!
I pasted below a short email that I just received from Sammy, the leader of the Kawama. This is a very welcome update on their recent activities.
All the best wishes to the Kawama Group and to their dedication to this difficult enterprise! We all hope to be able to continue helping their work in the next year

Luca

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HERE IS SAMMY'S EMAIL:

Hi Luca,
How is the family, now that you are back home?
We did plant trees at last on Sat 15th May. It was quite challenging due to the heavy rains but everybody was happy. It was an achievement that we have always looked forward to.
We transported all the seedlings at the first nursery but we were not able to plant all of them on the day. We managed to plant about 2,000 seedlings and we hope to plant the remaining, also about 2,000 on June 5th.
We had difficulties in transport due to bad road conditions, we were stuck several times before we even got to the nursery to pick the seedlings, we however managed after long hours of struggle. The second batch of seedlings, which we did not plant yet, was kept in a safe place in the garden of one of the neighbours to the forest. The rangers of the Kenya Forest Service collaborate with us and are regularly visiting the home to see that the seedlings are safe.
We drained all the financial resources that we had, so we are thinking on how to go about planting the remaining lot. It wou'nt take much since the element of transport is done with now. We only need fare for the members and refreshment.
I am not able to give you a more detailed report but I will soon, and am yet to receive the photos.
Best Regards,
Sammy.

May 7, 2010

Consuntivo Economico 2009 - Expense budget (2009)

Carissimi

ecco dunque arrivato il momento tanto atteso - tiriamo le somme di quanto abbiamo fatto nel 2009!

Nel 2009 abbiamo finanziato tre progetti: (1) le sette borse di studio per gli studenti piccoli e grandi (2) il laboratorio di tessitura  e filatura della lana di Njabini (3) la riforestazione degli Aberdare mountains insieme al gruppo Kawama

In totale, nel 2009 abbiamo ricevuto 18 donazioni per un totale di 3.683 Euro, a cui si somma il residuo di cassa del 2008 (ben 80 Euro!). La cifra disponibile è stata dunque in totale pari a 3.763 Euro.

Le spese riportate nella tabella qui sotto ammontano a 3390 Euro. Rimane quindi al 31 Dicembre 2009 un residuo di cassa di ben 373 Euro. Con questo residuo possiamo (a scelta) (1) pagarci una cena in un lussuoso ristorante oppure (2) spenderli sulle iniziative del 2010 per continuare a salvare il mondo, gli uccellini minacciati e gli studenti senza scarpe. Io fra le due opzioni voterei per la numero (2), ma attendo commenti - nel caso questi non arrivino darò per scontato il silenzio-assenso e procederò come proposto (opzione 2).

Pace e bene dunque a tutti dal sempre vostro Dr Liv!


English summary: in 2009 we received 18 donations for a total of 3,763 Euros. Expenses amounted to
€3,390 according to the table below. Project "Tutti a scuola" helped 7 school girls and boys to school for one year. Project "Ripiantiamo la foresta" restored an entire forest (well, maybe not so much...:-) in the Aberdare Range. Project "Salviamo l'uccellino Zampagrossa" helped preserving Kenya's natural highland grassland and the threatened birds that live in the grassland. We still have €373 unspent on 31 Dec 2009, I propose a poll between us all to decide what we want to do with that money. Options: (1) we buy wine food and party & get drunk (2) we spend them on the 2010 projects (soon to come on this blog!)


"Tutti a Scuola!" 775
Loretta-Armida Ripiantiamo la foresta 433
Salviamo l'Uccellino Zampagrossa - Laboratorio della Lana di Njabini 2137
Commissioni bancarie 45
TOTALE SPESE IN EURO 3390