Professor Wangari Muta Maathai , Nobel laureate and founder of the Green Belt Movement, died recently in her home country of Kenya at 71 of ovarian cancer. She was my hero. Faced with the negative effects of deforestation in her homeland, she started the Green Belt Movement in 1977, working with women to improve their livelihoods by paying them to care for newly planted trees, increasing their access to resources like firewood for cooking and clean water. She became a great advocate for better management of natural resources and for sustainability, equity, and justice. Professor Maathai’s departure is untimely and a very great loss to all who knew her—as a mother, relative, co-worker, colleague, role model, and heroine; or who admired her determination to make the world a more peaceful, healthier, and better place.
http://greenbeltmovement.org/n.php?id=252- Green Belt Movement
http://greenbeltmovement.org/w.php?id=114- A Billion Trees Campaign.
Since 1977, GBM communities have planted over 45 million trees in Kenya to increase natural forest cover and restore essential ecosystems.
I'm pre-chilling tree seeds in my back yard and refrigerator (olive, apple, plum) to sprout this spring and give away or sell for money to donate to the Green Belt Movement in Haiti.
