Women Empowerment: The life of Wangari Maathai Wangari Maathai was the first woman to receive a Nobel Peace

Prize. In addition, she was a former parliamentarian and assistant government minister for the Kenyan government, author, environmentalist and womens rights activist. Women are responsible for their children; they cannot sit back, waste time and see them starve. - Wangari Maathai (1940-2011) Unbowed In her biography Unbowed, Wangari Maathai recounts her life as a political activist, feminist and environmentalist. According to Bill Clinton, former US president, the biography is a universal story of persistence, courage and success at great odds for noble causes. Here are a few passages from Unbowed. African women in general need to know that it is OK for them to be the way the are to see the way they are as strength and to be liberated from fear and from silence. The privilege of higher education, especially outside Africa, broadened my original horizon and encouraged me to focus on the environment, women and development in order to improve the quality of life of people in my country in particular and in the African region in general. All of us have a God in us, and that God is the spirit that unites all life, everything that is on the planet. It must be this voice that is telling me to do something, and I am sure its the same voice speaking to everybody in the planet at least everybody who seems to be concerned about the fate of the world, the fate of the planet. We can work together for a better world with men and women of goodwill, those who radiate the intrinsic goodness of humankind. To do so effectively, the world needs a global ethic with values with give meaning to life experiences and more than religious institutions and dogmas sustain the non-material dimension of humanity. Mankind's universal values of love, compassion, solidarity, caring and tolerance should form the basis for this global ethic which should permeate culture, politics, trade, religion and philosophy. It should also permeate the extended family of the United Nations.

Green Belt Movement Who Wangari Maathai was, and what she stood for remains an inspiration to many women around the world, especially Kenya. She founded the Green Belt Movement that led women to plan over 1 million trees in Kenya. She said that the planting of trees was the planting of ideas. The simple act was meant to give women hope for themselves and the future. The Green Belt Movement started as a simple tree-planting program addressing the lack of water

in rural areas. The platform is now empowering women all through Africa and continues to champion environmental challenges facing Africa. It is a megaphone for women to voice their concerns and those of their villages and towns. Celebrating Her Life and Work She was born in Nyeri, Kenya on 1 April 1940. She got her first undergraduate degree in Biology from the Mt St. Scholastica College, USA in 1964. Her master in biological sciences was from the University of Pittsburgh and her PhD in Anatomy was from the University of Nairobi. In 1994 from a speech at Radcliffe College, Harvard University, USA, she said, the women of the Green Belt Movement have learned about the cause and the symptoms of environment degradation. They have begun to appreciate that they, rather than their government, ought to be the custodians of the environment. When looking at Maathais work, the environment may be many different things. It represents the political environment, the worldwide womens movement and the civil rights movement. Her work connected all the dots of land, government, economics, literacy, Mother Earth and feminism. On rededicating herself to fight in saving Karura Forest, Nairobi in 2001 she said that she had invested 20 years of her life in the campaign for the environment and she was still scratching the surface. She added that she was confident of winning saying, nobody will build anything in the forest as long as we live. We cannot dignify theft. Nobel Peace Prize She was the first African woman to receive a Nobel Prize, On receiving her Nobel Peace Prize, Wangari Maathai said that she was surprised and overwhelmed. All along she had thought that no none was listening to her. She saw the honor of the Nobel Prize as an honor for thousands of women who were part of the Green Belt Movement and for those who worked to bring back democracy through peaceful means in Kenya. The Nobel Prize was an inspiration for women to take charge of their environment and the system that governed them for their lives and the future. Other Awards She had 10 honorary Doctorate Degrees and numerous awards to her name. She was the goodwill ambassador of the Congo Basin Forest Initiative. She was a founding chair of the Green Belt Movement International. Assistant Minister, Member of Parliament and served as the director of Kenya Red Cross from 1973 to 1980. Why Maathai Will Remain an Empowerment to Women Womens struggle should be looked at within the context of the cohesive assertion against the complex categorization, where defining a woman comes from the backdrop of male conventional talk, relative to man. When asked why she chose trees, Maathai said that the truth of the matter was, I reacted to a set of problems by focusing on what could be done Throughout my life, I have never stopped to

strategize about my next steps. I often keep walking along through whichever door opens. When women burst out to assume the status of being with liberty, go ahead and excel, humanity, not just womanity wins. Women have been dynamic in making uncommon exploits and contributing to the society, not just, because they are women, but also because they are the cream of humanity, brought to the surface by their outstanding distinctive capacities. When such women are honored, like Prof Wangari Maathai, we celebrate. On the sad side of the same coin in her death, we celebrate the life of Wangari Maathai because she lived for the survival of a segment of our humanity in utter selflessness.