Dr Liv visits the Mara!

It was just great to have the opportunity to visit the Maasai Mara Reserve again. I had not been there for many years. The Mara is one of the pearls of Kenya's protected areas system, and not for a chance. It is one of the best places in Africa to see wildlife.

The Small Field Guides to the East African Wildlife

One of the main problems for the conservation of African wildlife is that many Africans do not have access to books that could help them to identify the species of plants and animals that are found near their villages. This means that many villagers and school students know very little or nothing about the environment. And of course, nobody is interested to conserve something that he or she does not know.
Working in Kenya, I often noticed that local people have a keen desire to learn more about wildlife. For this reason, I began to write a series of "Small Field Guides" that contain information and photos of the commonest animals and plants. Each field guide is focused on a specific area where I have worked, and whose wildlife I know well.
Each Small Field Guide can be printed cheaply or photocopied, and then distributed to the schools or to people who have an interest in wildlife. They can also be of interest to tourists.

Please contact me to obtain copies.

Consuntivo economico 2011 - Financial report 2011

Carissimi
Nel 2011 abbiamo finanziato 6 attivita': (1) otto borse di studio annuali per studenti delle scuole primarie e secondarie (2) tre borse di studio annuali per studenti presso il Museo Nazionale del Kenya (3) la riforestazione degli Aberdare mountains insieme al gruppo Kawama (4) la costurzione dei banchi della scuola di Temow nell'ambito dello Mbara Community Project (5) la costruzione di un gruppo di latrine presso Scuola di Mugumu-ini a Kinangop (6) corsi di aggiornamento per i membri del Njabini Woolspinning Workshop. Maggiori dettagli sulle attivita' del 2011 sono QUI
In totale, nel 2010 abbiamo ricevuto 18 donazioni per un totale di 7.469 Euro, a cui si somma il residuo di cassa del 2009 (911 Euro). La cifra disponibile è stata dunque in totale pari a 8.380 Euro, il che rappresenta anche per quest'anno un incremento del 40% rispetto all'anno precedente. Il che significa che, a questo ritmo, in capoa meno di 150 anni le Borse di Studio Africane raggiungeranno le dimensioni della Fondazione Gates :-)
Le spese effettuate nel 2011 ammontano a 6,963 Euro. Rimane quindi al 31 Dicembre 2011 un residuo di cassa di 1417 Euro, che sara' speso nel 2012.

Pace e bene dunque a tutti dal sempre vostro Dr Liv


English summary:

Dear All,
in 2011 we received 18 donations for a total of €7,469. Expenses amounted to
€6,963 according to the table below. You can find a description of the six projects that we funded HERE.  The unspent balance on 1st January 2012 amounts to €1,417, which will be spent in 2012.


Peace and Happiness to everybody!

Residuo cassa al 1 Gen 2011 - Balance on Jan 1st  2011	+911
Donazioni ricevute nel 2011 / Donations received in 2011	+7469
Scholarships/borse di studio for primary and secondary schools	-1148
Scholarships/ borse di studio National Museums of Kenya	-3764
Tree planting in Aberdare forest/Riforestazione Monti Aberdares	-165
The Mbara Community Project	-300
Mugumu-ini School/Scuola di Mugumu-ini	-674
Njabini woolspinning workshop	-886
Commissioni bancarie e spese/Bank fees and expenses	-26
Spese totali 2011 / Total expenses 2011	-6963€
Saldo al 01 Gen 2012 / Balance on 1st Jan 2012	+1417€

Resoconto delle attivita' del 2011 (English version below)

Cari amici, giusto per fare le somme dell'anno ormai quasi trascorso, ecco quello che abbiamo fatto con le donazioni ricevute:

1. Borse di Studio per gli studenti Samburu. Quest'anno abbiamo finanziato gli studi di 8 studenti delle scuole primarie e secondarie del distretto Samburu, uno dei piu' poveri del Kenya
2. Borse di Studio in collaborazione con il Museo Nazionale del Kenya. Finanziamenti parziali o borse di studio della durata di un anno per 4 studenti del Museo del Kenya impegnati in attività di conservazione della natura nel paese



Una borsa di lana tessuta a Njabini

3. Laboratorio della lana di Njabini. Margaret Mbatia, uno dei membri del gruppo, ha frequentato un corso di ragioneria che la aiuterà a tenere in ordine i registri contabili e le spese del laboratorio, che grazie al nostro aiuto e' in continua crescita ed impiega ormai stabilmente o part-time ben 15 persone
4. Scuola di Mbara. 30 banchi di scuola acquistati per i piccoli studenti che prima stavano seduti per terra
5. Scuola di Mugumu-ini. Un nuovo blocco di latrine e' in costruzione alla scuola, che con 500 studenti proprio non poteva più permettere che i pargoli facessero la loro santa pipi' sotto l'unico albero disponibile in un raggio di mezzo chilometro

Grazie a tutti quanti hanno contribuito, ed in particolare alle generosissime donazioni di David Fox e famiglia, di Antonio e Giulia Thellung e di Andrea Borghesio! Grazie inoltre alle associazioni CEPA (Conservation des Especes et Populations Animales) ed a Muindi ONLUS

A summary of the activities of 2011

Hello all. This is a quick summary of what we did in 2011:

1. Scholarships for Samburu students. We funded eight students of the primary and secondary schools of the Samburu District, one of the poorest districts of Kenya
2. Scholarships in collaboration with the National Museums of Kenya. Partial or complete funding of 4 one-year fellowships to University students attached to the Museums of Kenya, where they carry out conservation activities on Kenya's biodiversity



The Temow School at Mbara (Photo by TJ Hummerston)

3. Njabini wool spinning workshop. Margaret Mbatia, one of the group members, was sponsored to a one-month accounting and bookkeeping course that will help her in the management of the workshop that is steadily growing and now employs 7 persons full-time and 8 part-time
4. Mbara School. 30 desks purchased for the young students who now are no more sitting on the ground
5. Mugumu-ini School. A new latrine block is being completed at the school. With 500 young pupils, the school could really no more afford them to pass water under the only tree in a radius of 500m from the building

Many thanks again to everybody, in particular to the very generous donations of David Fox and his family, of Antonio and Giulia Thellung, Andrea Borghesio, to CEPA (Conservation des Especes et Populations Animales) and to Muindi ONLUS

A new forest discovered in the Taita Hills!

The Taita Hills of Kenya are a small range of mountains and a paradise of biodiversity. The forests in the Taita have evolved in isolation for perhaps 10 million of years, and evolution produced numerous species that can only be seen there and nowhere else in the world. One of these species is a small bird, the Taita apalis, whose population is reduced to just a few hundred individuals.

The Taita apalis, Apalis fuscigularis

Lawrence Wagura is one of the students that has been sponsored by our small fellowships. Lawrence works with the National Museums of Kenya, and is studying the details of the life history of the Taita apalis, which is a critically endangered species, because it is estimated that more than 95% of the original vegetation of the Taita has been lost. Currently less than 500 hectares of forest remain, scattered in twelve small fragments, some of which are less than one hectare in size. In September 2011, Lawrence and I, during a week of field work in the Taita, stumbled in a most astonishing and welcome discovery. A new forest, never visited by scientists in the Taita! The site, called Msidunyi by local people, escaped detection up to now as it is completely surrounded and hidden by a large plantation of non-indigenous trees. Msidunyi contains about 7.2 hectares of indigenous forest with few signs of human disturbance.

Lawrence birding in Msidunji, October 2011

Preliminary data suggest that Msidunyi is one of the biologically richest forest fragments of the Taita Hills, one of the most important findings was that of a new population of the Taita apalis. We do not know exactly how many individuals of the apalis might be in Msidunyi, but in any case this is a very important news for a bird whose entire population might be now less than 200 individuals! It is surprising that it escaped detection up to now considering that several biological surveys have been carried out in the area in the two decades. Based on size alone, Msidunyi is the sixth largest forest in the hills. More detailed biological surveys are needed to confirm the conservation value of this small forest patch, but the presence of a diverse flora and fauna, including endemic and globally threatened species, suggest that Msidunyi is an important refuge for rare species and a stepping stone for preserving biological connectivity between the isolated forest remnants of the Taita Hills.

Back to school ! Si torna a scuola !

Since I will be in Ngilai for the entire month of August, I have been able to meet with our students here in the village. This is vacation time for Kenyan schools, so all of them are here in these weeks.
As you remember, four students are receiving a small fellowship that pays their school fees. Thanks to these small donations, Naomi, Simon, Danson and Thomas have been able to attend secondary school. This would have been very unlikely without our help, so we can be proud of ourselves :-)
Naomi, Danson, Simon and Thomas will soon begin the fourth and last year of school, and we hope that we will be able to support more students of the Ngilai village to school in the coming years.  Meanwhile, this year's donations allowed us to sponsor another student (the fifth). Damaris is a 15-year old girld, she is currently attending the first year of secondary school at Mwalimu Girls Secondary School in Meru, and we wish her all the best.

Damaris, Naomi, Simon, Thomas and Danson

(Traduzione). E' agosto, e come sempre sono a Ngilai molto indaffarato a torturare uccellini. Ad agosto in Kenya le scuole sono chiuse, e tutti i nostri studenti sono qui nel villaggio. Fra poco Naomi, Danson, Simon e Thomas inizieranno il quarto e ultimo anno di scuola, e in tutta sincerita' vi posso garantire che senza il nostro aiuto non avrebbero potuto raggiungere questo risultato! Evviva!
Le donazioni di quest'anno sono state generose, e ci hanno permesso di aiutare una nouva studentessa, Damaris, che frequenta il primo anno alla Mwalimu School di Meru. Molti auguri a lei e ai suoi amici!

News from the Mathews range

Hello everybody! August is vacation time here in Kenya, and as usual I am in the Mathews range with my team and we are busy busy busy on our forest bird research.
The big news is that birds are again in trouble this year, another big drought is impacting the forest very strongly and our data show that bird populations this year are hitting another the all time minimum more than -50% decrement since 2005, the year when we began this study.
Lawrence and Sammy as usual are using mist nets to obtain very accurate information on the biology of the forest birds, and their results are clear - some species, even common ones like the Grey-backed Camaroptera, this year did not breed at all, as it shown by the fact that the number of juveniles that we caught this year was more thna 50% than the number we got last year. Clearly, the drought is hitting very badly on the birds, and one wonders what will be the long term consequences of this.

A Grey-backed Camaroptera in the nets. This year we caught almost no juveniles of this species. A clear sign that the breeding season was a failure due to the harsh drought conditions

Talking of global climate change might seem like shooting too far, but the fact is that the most recent research suggests that droughts like the one of this year (and the one of 2009) will become more and more common in East Africa in the future. No doubts that this will have a very bad impact on the forests and their fauna.

Here is the call for the small fellowships 2011! Hooray!

(VERSIONE IN ITALIANO PIU’ GIU’ nella PAGINA)

Dear friends, greetings from Nairobi, Kenya!
At last, here are our proposals for 2011! As usual, we have a long list of noble initiatives that will save the word, help young students to go to school, save endangered species of birds… and much more! I hope you will like these proposals, please let me hear your comments and suggestions to improve them :-)
If you wish to donate, you can use the link on the right of the blog. The link will send you to Paypal, where you will be able to donate using your credit card.
If you make a donation, please do also send me an email, I need that to keep track of all the donations.
Peace & happiness from Dr Liv!

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1) Scholarships for students of the primary and secondary schools of the Samburu District. The Samburu District, in Northern Kenya, is one of the poorest regions of the country. For many female and male students, school expenses, despite being low for Western standards, are unbearable. Many students drop off school or never attend it because their families can’t afford school expenses. We propose to sponsor 7-10 students with small scholarships (about €150 each) of one year duration. The students will be chosen by the village elders and we will ensure that female students will make a substantial percentage of the prize winners.

Martha

Lawrence

2) Scholarships for students in collaboration with the National Museums of Kenya. The National Museums is the governmental institution mandated to study and conserve biodiversity in Kenya. This proposal aims to awards small grants to University students who are interns of the Museums of Kenya and work on biodiversity conservation in the field. The names of some of these students are well known to us, as we have already collaborated with them for some years. Sammy Bakari and Dominic Kimani work in the Kinangop Plateau, in central Kenya, to preserve the habitat of Sharpe’s Longclaw, one of the most highly endangered species of birds in the world. Martha Nzisa wrote a small book on the birds of Africa, and with our help will distribute it in the primary schools of Kenya. Lawrence Wagura is working on a mission impossible, which is to save the Taita Apalis, a small bird whose population is reduced to only 200 individuals living on top of a mountain in southern Kenya.

Spinning wool at Njabini

3) The Njabini woolspinning workshop. We already wrote in previous posts about this initiative, which has been ongoing for quite some years now. Briefly, the Njabini workshop is an eco-friendly business that creates workplaces and also contributes to the preservation of the highly threatened highland grasslands of Kenya. The wool shaved from sheep is spinned in yarn that is woven into scarves, bags, wall hangings and other products. To help improve the quality of their wool products, Njabini need to obtain some new spinning wheels, that are the tools used to transform the wool into spinned yarn.

Mbara School (by TJ Hummerston)

4) Mbara village school. This project is led Terry John Hummerston, a friend of mine who is doing wonderful things in this small village of western Kenya. Terry is now working with the villagers to build a school and needs money to purchase 40 desks for the young students. The desks will be built by a local carpenter and are very cheap (about €8 each). I hope that we will be able to raise the €300 that is needed to purchase all the 40 desks

Ecco a voi l'appello per le iniziative del 2011! Evviva!

Cari amici, saluti da Nairobi, Kenya!

Ecco finalmente a voi le proposte il 2011!
Come sempre si tratta di un ricco elenco di nobili iniziative per salvare il mondo, mandare a scuola brave figliole e figlioli che non tengono il becco di un quattrino, aiutare uccellini in via di estinzione (eccetera...). Spero che la vostra risposta sia positiva, fatemi sentire i vostri commenti e proposte per nuove attivita'.
Come negli anni precedenti, per le donazioni potete usare il link che compare sulla destra di questo blog (verrete ridiretti sul sito di Paypal e potrete donare utilizzando la vostra carta di credito). In alternativa, le donazioni possono essere effettuate sul conto corrente Bancario dell'Associazione Muindi-Semi di Sorriso ONLUS (numero del conto nella colonna a destra del blog).
Per cortesia, se fate una donazione, mandatemi una email di conferma, altrimenti perdo il conto di chi ha donato, quanto e quando!
Pace e bene a tutti voi dal Dr Liv

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1) Borse di studio annuali per studenti delle scuole primarie e secondarie del Samburu District. Il Samburu District, nel Kenya settentrionale, e' una delle regioni più povere del paese. Per moltissimi giovani ragazzi e ragazze le spese scolastiche, per quanto minime, sono insostenibili, e di conseguenza moltissimi studenti non riescono a completare gli studi. Questa proposta intende fornire piccole borse di studio (di circa 150 euro l'una) a 7-10 studenti del Samburu District. La scelta dei beneficiari delle borse viene fatta in collaborazione con gli anziani del villaggio, cercando di aiutare studenti di entrambi i sessi

Lawrence

Martha

2) Borse di studio per studenti in collaborazione con il Museo Nazionale del Kenya. Il Museo Nazionale e' uno dei principali istituti di ricerca del Kenya, e si occupa dello studio e della conservazione della biodiversità del paese. Questa iniziativa si propone di fornire piccoli aiuti economici (da 200 al 1200 euro a testa) per studenti universitari che collaborano con il Museo in iniziative di conservazione "sul campo". I nomi di alcuni di questi studenti ci sono ben noti, dato che gia' da qualche anno collaboriamo con loro. Sammy Bakari e Dominic Kimani lavorano nell'altopiano di Kinangop, una prateria di alta quota dove vive il ben noto Uccellino Zampagrossa, uno degli uccelli più rari e minacciati del mondo. Martha Nzisa ha scritto un piccolo libro sugli uccelli africani e con il nostro aiuto intende distribuirlo nelle scuole primarie di Nairobi. Lawrence Wagura studia nuovi metodi per una mission impossible ... salvare l'Apalis delle Taita Hills, un uccellino la cui popolazione e' ormai ridotta a soli 200 individui in cima ad una montagna nel sud del Kenya

Filatura della lana

3) Il laboratorio di filatura e tessitura della lana di Njabini. Di questa iniziativa, che prosegue ormai da anni, abbiamo già parlato a lungo in post precedenti (CLIKKARE QUI). In breve, si tratta di una iniziativa per creare posti di lavoro ed al tempo stesso contribuire alla salvaguardia di un ambiente gravemente minacciato (le praterie di montagna), sostenendo il commercio equo-solidale della lana. Con questa iniziativa intendiamo acquistare alcune ruote per la filatura della lana (circa 150 euro l'una). Con questi strumenti, la lana viene filata, ossia trasformata in fili, che a loro volta  sono utilizzati per produrre sciarpe, borse, tappeti eccetera.

Mbara School (foto T Hummerston)

4) La scuola di Mbara. Questa iniziativa e' condotta da un mio amico, Terry John Hummerston, sulle cui incredibili imprese potete leggere in un post precedente. Terry, lavorando insieme al villaggio di Mbara, nel Kenya Occidentale, sta costruendo una scuola e ci propone di aiutare il villaggio ad acquistare 40 banchi per i piccoli studenti. I banchi sono costruiti da artigiano locali e costano pochissimo (circa 8 euro l'uno). Terry non e' nuovo ad iniziative di questo genere, tutte contraddistinte da un grande ingegno e costi incredibilmente bassi. Proporrei di raccogliere almeno 300 euro per sostenere questa iniziativa.