A Keynote Address by Dr. Wangari Maathai
January 31st, 2007
Ritsche Auditorium, Stewart Hall
Sustainable Development, Democracy and Peace: Critical Link
Wagari Maathai was the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree. She pioneered the concept of mobilizing communities to protect their environment through tree planting in 1976, while an active member of the National Council of Women of Kenya. A year later, she develops this idea into a grassroots organization, The Green Belt Movement. Through its process of mobilizing people to take action, The Green Belt Movement has lead to the planting of over 30 million trees in Kenya, the improvement of the lives of hundreds of thousands of women and their families, and peaceful democratic change at the nation level.
Today Professor Maathai is an elected Member of Parliament and serves as deputy Minister of Environment in Kenya’s Government, Her vision for the future is a “a world in which the environment, democratic space and peace are secure and citizens (young and old) are empowered to take action.”
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