Black History & Women’s History, this is Her Story!
Today we celebrate environmental activist Wangari Maathai, the founder of the Green Belt Movement. Maathai was born in Nyeri, Kenya (Africa) in 1940. She became the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree and the first black African woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize (2004).
She introduced the idea of community-based tree planting and founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977. The grassroots organization began small villages of Kenya, African encourages women, to plant trees to combat poverty, deforestation and environmental degradation. To date, the Green Belt Movement has planted over 50 million trees.
“It’s the little things citizens do. That’s what will make the difference. My little thing is planting trees.”
-Wangari Maathai
Books Maathai authored: https://www.greenbeltmovement.org/wangari-maathai/books
Documentary film about Maathai: Taking Root: the Vision of Wangari Maathai
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