Mobilising the mothers. Millennium trailblazers 5: Wangari Maathai
Salmon, K.
People and the Planet 8(4): 22-23
1999
ISSN/ISBN: 0968-1655 PMID: 12295551 Document Number: 524194
The article focuses on Wangari Maathai's environmental campaigns in Kenya. Her battle to save Karura Forest from land-grabbing has brought her into a head-on confrontation with the government. In deals that have shocked the nation, this public land has been allocated to private developers, eager to line their own pockets by looting the nation's heritage. Government files listing the names of companies allocated plots in Karura have mysteriously disappeared. Her efforts to save the park, she has been maligned and threatened. But despite all these, she remains unfazed. She founded the Green Belt Movement (GBM) in 1977, which has started over 3000 tree nurseries, produced 20 million trees, and involved 50,000 women. She set about training the women to establish their own tree nurseries to make them independent people and there has been profound transformation since then. Furthermore, she emphasizes the importance of fighting ignorance because people become very vulnerable when they do not receive information.