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As trees grow, they give you hope and self-confidence.
You feel good, like you have transformed the landscape Wangari Maathai |
Educating children about the importance of planting trees to restore and protect water catchment areas
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Green Belt Movement
Wangari Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement in 1977 to respond to the needs of rural Kenyan women who reported that their streams were drying up, their food supply was less secure, and they had to walk further and further to get firewood for fuel and fencing. The Movement empowers communities, particularly women, to conserve the environment and improve livelihoods. GBM encouraged the women to work together to grow seedlings and plant trees to bind the soil, store rainwater, provide food and firewood, and receive a small monetary token for their work.
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The History
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The Green Belt Movement (GBM) was founded by Professor Wangari Maathai in 1977 under the auspices of the National Council of Women of Kenya (NCWK) to respond to the needs of rural Kenyan women who reported that their streams were drying up, their food supply was less secure, and they had to walk further and further to get firewood for fuel and fencing. GBM encouraged the women to work together to grow seedlings and plant trees to bind the soil, store rainwater, provide food and firewood, and receive a small monetary token for their work. Shortly after beginning this work, Professor Maathai saw that behind the everyday hardships of the poor—environmental degradation, deforestation, and food insecurity—were deeper issues of disempowerment, disenfranchisement, and a loss of the traditional values that had previously enabled communities to protect their environment, work together for mutual benefit, and to do both selflessly and honestly.
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The Present
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The need to protect the environment and the forest which Wangari found so hard to protect continues.
1 March 2016: Update on Karura Forest - A call to Kenyans Thank you for your continued and overwhelming support in the fight for integrity and preservation of Karura Forest. This fight to protect Karura is far from over, and GBM continues to seek your help to protect this vital natural resource. |
