Strong Women, Small Movements, Incredible Change

In a time and a place where women did not have a voice, Wangari Maathai stood sound against the most forceful powers in Kenya to protect the people and environment of her native country. Maathai’s initial small act addressing the needs of women in her village turned into a movement that ultimately helped bring down Kenya’s twenty-four-year dictatorship. Along the way, the movement grew to provided new sources of food and income to rural communities, gave previously impoverished and powerless women a voice and role in creating change within their country, and reclaimed the country’s land from 100 years of deforestation.

As quoted in the New York Times today, “Wangari Maathai was known to speak truth to power,” said John Githongo, an anti-corruption campaigner in Kenya who was forced into exile for several years for his own outspoken views.

Starting with the simple act of planting trees to address the need for water and firewood in her village, Maathai started a movement that resounded throughout her country. Now her institiution that was started in 1977, The Green Belt Movement, has planted over 35 million trees and has greatly contributed to sustainable development in Africa.

At first, Maathai and the women from her village were seen as voiceless nothings.  However, no matter the women’s simple agenda, harassment from the government began when they noticed the strength of the organization. An effort to debase womanhood was emphasized. There are clips of Kenya’s President, Daniel arap Moi, laughing and degragating Maathai and the acts of the women who work with her. Maathai’s response to the harassment was simply, “…we are planting trees for our country. A legacy for our children as our ancestors left a legacy for us. So let us not be pushed around.” One of the women from the village stated, “Wangari has given me the strength to know if I fight for something, I can make it happen.”

It’s the people who set their environment. It’s the people that must make their leaders change. And we cannot be intimidated. So we must stand up for what we believe in.

Wangari Maathai
(April 1, 1940 – September 25, 2011)

More here:
The Green Belt Movement and the connection between poverty & environmental concerns

A 23-year-old Kenyan’s solar-powered LED lantern helps light rural homes

Nairobi, Kenya (CNN) — The villagers’ faces light up as Evans Wadongo arrives. Men, women and children sing and gather around as he shows how his invention — a solar-powered LED lantern — will soon light up their homes.

“These families, they are so poor. They don’t have electricity,” said Wadongo, a native of rural Kenya. “It’s only kerosene and firewood that they use for lighting, cooking.

“The amount of money that every household uses to buy kerosene every day — if they can just save that money, they can be able to buy food.”

Wadongo, 23, not only is giving his country’s rural families a way to replace the smoky kerosene and firelight with solar power, he says he also hopes his invention will ultimately improve education and reduce poverty and hunger. And he’s providing it for free.

Thanks for sharing, Courtney!