| Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai |
|
|
Dr. Wangari Maathai, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and AWEPA Eminent Advisory Board member, will participate in the Movies that Matter Festival in The Hague, Netherlands, this week. Dr. Maathai will present and discuss the film Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai, which portrays her long and difficult struggle for environmental and human rights in Kenya.
Please click here to learn more about Amnesty International's Movies that Matter Festival. |
After studying in the U.S. during the sixties, Dr. Maathai returned to a Kenya where women struggled with water shortages, unfed children and having to walk increasing distances for firewood. She founded the Green Belt Movement and mobilised rural women to plant trees. Through these activities, women managed to stop centuries' worth of deforestation and created new sources of food and income for local communities. Dr. Maathai's actions made an extraordinary contribution to democratisation in Kenya. The Movement not only improved women's livelihoods, but also increased their self-awareness, as they not only fought deforestation, but also tackled poverty and political repression.