She is the founder of the Green Belt Movement. Planted over 51 million trees.
The great women is Wangari Muta Maathai (1 April 1940 – 25 September 2011). She was educated in the United States at Mount St. Scholastic (Benedictine College) and the University of Pittsburgh, as well as the University of Nairobi in Kenya.
In 2004, Wangari Maathai received the Nobel Peace Prize – becoming the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize – for her work with the Green Belt Movement.Maathai was a leader in Ecofeminist movement. She grew up in rural community, called Ihithe, in Kenya and earned both a bachelors and masters degree from universities in the United States. Maathai was the first Eastern African woman to receive a PhD from the University College of Nairobi.
This non-governmental organization (NGO) uses the direct action of planting trees and facilitating community education to change the current system of oppression that prevents women in rural Kenya from accessing education, resources and land. This form of activism, as direct community empowerment, has been replicated around the world.
The Green Belt Movement functions to support and provide resources to communities for the purpose of demanding democratic space and accountability from national leaders.
Communities in Kenya (both men and women) have been motivated and organised to both prevent further environmental destruction and restore that which has been damaged.
Wangari Maathai died of complications arising from ovarian cancer while receiving treatment at a Nairobi hospital on 25 September 2011
Google Doodle celebrated the life of the late Kenyan environmental and poliitcal activist, Wangari Maathai, on April 1.
On 25 September 2013, the Wangari Maathai Trees and Garden was dedicated on the lawn of the University of Pittsburgh's Cathedral of Learning.[75] The memorial includes two red maples symbolizing Maathai’s "commitment to the environment, her founding of the Green Belt Movement, and her roots in Kenya and in Pittsburgh" and a flower garden planted in a circular shape that representing her "global vision and dedication to the women and children of the world" with an ornamental maple tree in the middle signifying "how one small seed can change the world"
