Our Sharpe’s Longclaw project and our support for the Friends of Kinangop Plateau - and in particular the inspirational Dominic Kimani - has been quietly ticking along over the summer, and there’s some more good news to report.

Firstly, the brochure that I first ‘pitched’ to FoKP some months ago has finally made its way through the many different people that needed to see it and okay it, and I’m glad to say it’s now at the printers in Nairobi.

The brochure was designed (and always intended) to be used to promote the activities of the Njabini Woolshop, and to be used in cojunction with the product label that Luca Borghesio and I created and which I took out to Kenya (the full story is at Labelled with Love. I’m glad to say the initial pdf I’ve been sent looks very encouraging! I’ve posted a low-res image below which hardly does it justice, but its the best I can do right now! When I get a final version I’ll post it on our ‘gateway’ page.

Secondly, there is a marvellous development on the funding front. Dominic’s year-long Fellowship has ended now, but David Fox (a donor who has been an important member of our ‘team’ but who has previously remained very much in the background) has entirely funded a second Fellowship, this time to support Sammy Bakari who is a key member of the Woolshop and who works very closely with Luca.

I couldn’t let David’s fantastic generosity go unmentioned again, and I’m delighted to say that he has just completed an interview with me which we’ll be posting in the next few days - it’s a very interesting insight and excellent reading. keep an eye out for it…

Lastly, Jim Lawrence, Programme Manager of BirdLife International’s ‘Preventing Extinctions Programme’ (and the first person who took me seriously when I said that 10,000 Birds would like to join the PEP as Species Champions and has been a good friend ever since) has just returned from a holiday to Kenya with his wife during which he met up with Dominic and went to Kinangop to see for himself the work FoKP is doing on the ground to help Sharpe’s Longclaw.

He has come back very enthused, and has promised to write a guest post for us (he’s incredibly busy so I’m not sure when it’ll arrive, but I’ll hold him to his promise!). More importantly he is fully supportive of the ongoing efforts - and to have someone of his stature and position within the world’s most influential bird conservation organisation fired up about the Sharpe’s Longclaw is very good news indeed!