This effort culminated in the founding of the
Green Belt Movement.
Maathai has since passed away, but the
Green Belt Movement is still thriving.
Wangari Maathai and the
Green Belt Movement received a host of awards, including Japan's Order of the Rising Sun, the Legion d'Honneur and the Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights.
The
Green Belt Movement went on to campaign on other issues of importance to women, including education and nutrition.
to what has become the
Green Belt Movement, a complex intertwining of
In 1977, Maathai organized the
Green Belt Movement expressly for women, leading a combination of hands-on instruction on how to plant trees and funding a small reward for planting seedlings to restore their nation's forests.
Her brainchild, the
Green Belt Movement, has grown into a nationwide movement, making her an inspirational icon in Kenya.
When asked what she is doing, Hummingbird responds, "I'm doing everything I can." An inspirational message titled Do The Best You Can from Wangari Maathai, founder of the
Green Belt Movement in Kenya, is included at the end of "The Little Hummingbird." An additional resource mentioned in the book is the Haida anime "Flight of the Hummingbird," by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, which can be viewed on YouTube, www.mny.ca.
Maathai, the winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize and founder of the
Green Belt Movement, an NGO devoted to sustainable development and women's empowerment, is at her most eloquent when discussing the continent's many environmental challenges, and her passion for the subject radiates through her words.
In 1977 she founded the
Green Belt Movement as a means of community mobilisation and social empowerment.
Environmentalist and activist Wangari Maathai founded Kenya's
Green Belt Movement in direct response to the devastated natural resources and poverty caused by the deforestation of her homeland for commercial purposes.
"This study offers convincing evidence that farms and forests are in no way mutually exclusive, but that trees are in fact critical to agricultural production everywhere," said Professor Wangari Maathai, founder of the
Green Belt Movement. (ANI)