The festival is very interesting as are the members of my jury…you
can look us up on the internet.  

http://www.amazonasfilmfestival.com.br/en/Filmes_2009.jsp

The films are an impressive line up of documentaries, short subjects and long forms.

Hope everyone is well and I will post again when I return to Los Angeles.

Stefanie

William Holden Wildlife Foundation

As you may have read, Kenya and most of East Africa is experiencing the
worst drought since that of 1962. Rivers are running dry, grasslands
cannot support traditional herds of cattle, sheep and goats forcing
tribal migrations to higher altitudes in search of grass where the
colder climate and weakened condition of the domestic animals causes
large numbers to die. Power sources, mostly hydroelectric, have been
forced to engage in blackouts twice a week. We at the WHWF’s education
center have also suffered from these conditions. There is little if no
water in the river from which we derive the water to serve our kitchens
and flush our toilets. Power outages cause us to run our generator at great expense in order to operate essential equipment. These reasons
coupled with the effects of the last difficult financial year have
greatly effected our financial health. In order to prudently manage our
donors generosity we have had to make a difficult but necessary
decision. Since we have already served nearly 8,000 students this year
we feel it appropriate to close the education center grounds
temporarily to groups while continuing with all our outreach programs and the rural libraries inclusive of the pen pals ongoing correspondence. It
has also become necessary to downsize our staff whose services will not
be necessary in the forthcoming months. Since we opened our doors in
1982 we have served over 300,000 students and visitors of all ages free
of charge as a result of our donors ongoing commitments. I personally
have also committed a great deal of my own income to our project and
have always taken pride in the knowledge that we over all other
organizations can actually say that 100% of each donation we receive
goes to our work in Kenya and that nothing is deflected for directors
expenses, or overheads in the US. We are also proud of the way our
money and expenses have been carefully managed and overseen by David
McConnell in Kenya, who has been able to consistently prevent waste and
find ways to cut erroneous costs.  I hope you will bear with us while
continuing your support in the hopes that we may ride out these
difficult times and emerge successfully to reopen and continue the
vital work of the foundation.

Thank you,
Stefanie

This summer I’ve been busy traveling to and from Kenya, and working on my memoir.  It’s been fun looking back over the years and putting it down on paper.  It will be published sometime next fall from Simon and Schuster.  So stay tuned for updates …

Hope you all are enjoying a wonderful summer and I will do my best to keep the ‘blogs’ coming.

Stefanie