Sended on: 01/09/2009

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Dear friends,
Here is our quarterly newsletter:should you not like to receive it anymore, please reply with "remove" in the subject.

We have never written this newsletter to try to entertain you; we have always done it to inform you on what is happening at Campi ya Kanzi and with the foundation.

Thats why we are sharing with you some very sad news. Campi ya Kanzi was hit by tragedy, last November. Four friends who came to plan the building of a dental clinic for the Maasai community, perished in an airplane crash over Mt. Kilimanjaro. Franco and Stefania Tamiazzo have been very close friends of both the camp and the foundation. All the videos you find on www.maasai.com were done by them. They were the first supporters of our Italian foundation. They came with friends Claudio Zornitta and Paola Santini, and with the staff of their Italian dental clinic. Together we were making plans on how to assist the dental medical needs of the Maasai community.

(Franco on Lucas right with Stefania and their friends)

MWCT is committed to honor them. Luca is climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro in March, to raise funds to build the dental clinic planned by Franco and Stefania, and which will be named after them. Please contact Luca should we wish to either sponsor him or join him on the climb. The aim is to raise $1 per climbed foot. Kili is 19,340 ft: can Luca count you in for just few feet, please? It will help a very noble cause.

Knowing Franco and Stefania very well, we are convinced they would like us to learn to be cheerful again. They would want us to be even more determined to carry on with Campi ya Kanzi and with the foundation projects they have so meaningfully supported over the years.

It is in this spirit that we share with you the following exciting news.

Antonella is expecting our third baby. He/she (we are not going to be told the sex) is due at the beginning of May. Antonella is not allowing Luca visiting her bedroom if he does not go to see a certain doctor for a certain operation&

Saving a lion. Only few months ago a wounded lion would have certainly been either left to die or helped to die, by the Maasai community, perceiving him as the killer of their livestock. It is very rewarding for MWCT to have been called by a group of Maasai to save a wounded lion.

This young male was found by a group of warriors; he was unwilling to move, under a tree. Instead of letting him die, they alerted us. We brought water and meat to him. He has been badly mauled by another male. This fight shows the lion population is growing fast, and there is fierce territorial competition. But what this story really tells us is that the Maasai do not longer see in lions a threat, but an asset: their rallying to rescue a lion is incredible. Thank you to all of you contributing to our Simba Project, it clearly works!

Great fundraisings. MWCF organized two events in December, in Santa Barbara and New York. We are very grateful to our hosts, Heidi and Chris Blair in Santa Barbara, and Lydia Fenet of Christies in New York. We are most grateful to all of you who supported the events: the two evenings combined raised more than $400,000. It is more than what we raised last year. It is much more meaningful than you can imagine: not for what these $ will accomplish in the field, but because we do not have donors, but real supporters, able to rally around us even in very difficult times. What we raised, combined with the Campi ya Kanzi conservation fee, will enable MWCT to run all its current programs in 2009: education (with 44 employed teachers), health (with a doctor and 5 nurses), conservation (with nearly 50 game scouts). A real big thank you to all who helped to organize the two events and to all who contributed so generously.

In New York the auction was real fun. Many thanks to John Grisham and our supporters: five of them purchased the naming of a character in Johns next book, contributing $50,000 to MWCF.

(Pio Cabanillas of Fondation Maasai Luca, Renee and John Grisham- of MWCF)

(Our hosts house in Montecito)

(Luca, hosts Heidi and Chris Blair, Kenny G, Edward and Samson)

Conservation Endowment. MWCF received a great Christmas present: Jim Clark (Netscape founder) donated $250,000, to start our conservation endowment. Just the other day Luca was walking with the Maasai community leaders to decide where to have the boundary of Kanzi Conservancy, a 5,000 acres conservancy where the Maasai have agreed to not have any livestock, so that it can be dedicated solely to wildlife. As Samson put it, it will be like a marine park, from where wildlife will spread into the ecosystem. We are already finalizing a second agreement, for a 7,000 acres conservancy, which will help preserving the dispersal corridor of the Tsavo-Amboseli migratory pattern.

While we are very excited and proud of these developments, lets not forget that we are where we are thanks to the many supporters who decided to help MWCT after they visited Campi ya Kanzi. Please keep supporting us, without you we would not be able to continue.

A teacher for Lucrezia and her friends. Boarding school does not go too well with the Italian mother instinct of Antonella& We are going to run a private school at the camp, for 10 kids. Lucrezia will be joined by 9 Maasai children, the best pupils in the community. We believe top schooling will be a great opportunity for them, as well as for Lucrezia. We have already employed a Kenyan teacher; we are now looking for an American teacher to team up with him, staying for at least 18 months (better if longer!). We will start grade 2 (second term) in July. If you know of anybody who wishes to live this incredible experience, please contact Antonella: info@africaunlimited.co.ke  

(The Kanzi school Christmas show: Muzungui, Mambei, Simaloi, Lucrezia)

Beat the crisis. Missing Africa, wilderness and wildlife? Worried about your money? If you want to get a good value for your $ consider a stay of 7 nights at Campi ya Kanzi, we will pass you a 30% discount. Get in touch with Luca if you want to take advantage of this opportunity. It is valid from January to June 2009.

Looking for a new year. 2008 has been a challenging year, both in Kenya and abroad. Both for Campi ya Kanzi and for MWCT, both for who visited and/or want to visit the camp or have supported and/or wants to support the Trust. Among many difficulties it has brought many seeds for hope. All of us can find them around ourselves, if we just look carefully and with an open mind. These are times when determined people must not loose their determination and optimism. We look forward to having our third baby, we look forward to consolidate the great results of the Foundation, we look forward to be a better beacon for conservation and ecotourism.

(From our paradise of nature in Kenya we wish you all a new year of HOPE.)

Luca, Antonella with Lucrezia and Jacopo, Stefano, Samson and all the Maasai teams of Campi ya Kanzi and MWCT.

P.S. Keep supporting our efforts and we will keep accomplishing a lot together. See here below what your donation will do.

What your money will do:

A donation of..	Can...	for...
$100	Pay the salary of a kindergarten teacher	1 month
$120	Pay the salary of a game scout	1 month
$215	Pay the salary of a teacher	1 month
$350	Pay for a set of books for an entire class	1 year
$500	Pay the salary of the coordinator of the Trust	1 month
$550	Buy medicine, needles, antibiotics	3 months
$600	Buy a hand held radio for the game scouts	Ever
$750	Pay for a pupil at secondary school	1 year
$1,440	Pay a game scout for 1 year	1 year
$1,800	Buy all the books the school needs	1 year
$2,500	Pay the salary of a doctor	1 month
$22,000	Cover for the entire payroll of the Trust	1 month
And more money can&.
$6,000	Build a waterhole to draw more wildlife and elephants into the reserve
$18,000	Buy a second hand Land Rover for helping the dispensary and the scouts
$45,000	Buy a Land Rover ambulance for the doctor, to assist the entire community
$60,000	Yearly fee for the Maasai landlords to establish & then maintain a conservancy
$85,000	Run Simba Project for 1 year
$90,000	Create a black rhino sanctuary

The Maasai Wilderness Conservation Fund (www.maasaifoundation.org) is a US 501 c (3) nonprofit corporation that has supported the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust with grants for wildlife conservation, medical and educational projects. Your donation will be directed to the sector, project or program you choose.