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!

---------------------------------------------

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