Friday, February 24, 2006
In Word and Action
A divorced, destitute black woman in Nairobi started planting trees in her backyard in 1977, as a small, personal step towards "making Kenya green again" and kept on going. Since then she’s inspired impoverished villagers to plant 30 million trees across Africa, founding the Green Belt Movement (http://www.greenbeltmovement.org/biographies.htm)
Gathering momentum with others, she stopped construction of a highrise in a major park, was knocked unconscious by police and, this month, became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace prize (http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/2004).
Learn how planting trees promotes world peace, and gives women more freedom and safety. (http://www.lanternbooks.com/detail.htmlid=159056040X&OVRAW=Learning%20Nairobi%20%22Wangari%20Maathai%22&OVKEY=wangari%20maathai&OVMTC=advanced)
Think you have too little time or money to make a difference? (I am reminding myself as much as you.) Let’s keep Wangari Maathai’s story on the top of our minds as we make choices in putting “first things first.
“I don't really know why I care so much. I just have something inside me that tells me that there is a problem, and I have got to do something about it. I think that is what I would call the God in me. All of us have a God in us, and that God is the spirit that unites all life, everything that is on this planet. It must be this voice that is telling me to do something, and I am sure it's the same voice that is speaking to everybody on this planet who is concerned about the fate of the world.”
- Wangari Maathai
Gathering momentum with others, she stopped construction of a highrise in a major park, was knocked unconscious by police and, this month, became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace prize (http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/2004).
Learn how planting trees promotes world peace, and gives women more freedom and safety. (http://www.lanternbooks.com/detail.htmlid=159056040X&OVRAW=Learning%20Nairobi%20%22Wangari%20Maathai%22&OVKEY=wangari%20maathai&OVMTC=advanced)
Think you have too little time or money to make a difference? (I am reminding myself as much as you.) Let’s keep Wangari Maathai’s story on the top of our minds as we make choices in putting “first things first.
“I don't really know why I care so much. I just have something inside me that tells me that there is a problem, and I have got to do something about it. I think that is what I would call the God in me. All of us have a God in us, and that God is the spirit that unites all life, everything that is on this planet. It must be this voice that is telling me to do something, and I am sure it's the same voice that is speaking to everybody on this planet who is concerned about the fate of the world.”
- Wangari Maathai
