Seeds of peace.Wangari Maathai Dr. Wangari Muta Maathai born April 1, 1940 in Ihithe village, Tetu division, Nyeri District of Kenya is an environmental and political activist. In 2004 she became the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for "her contribution to sustainable development, democracy (wan-GAH-ree mah-DHEYE), a woman from Kenya who started an environmental movement in Africa, and who has campaigned for women's rights The effort to secure equal rights for women and to remove gender discrimination from laws, institutions, and behavioral patterns. The women's rights movement began in the nineteenth century with the demand by some women reformers for the right to vote, known as suffrage, and and greater democracy, has been awarded the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish and Norwegian: Nobels fredspris) is the name of one of five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel. . Maathai is the first African woman to win the prize since it was first awarded in 1901. Through her efforts, women across Africa have planted some 30 million trees to help reverse the deforestation deforestation Process of clearing forests. Rates of deforestation are particularly high in the tropics, where the poor quality of the soil has led to the practice of routine clear-cutting to make new soil available for agricultural use. that has stripped much of the continent bare. For every tree that takes root, the woman who planted it earns a small sum. Maathai's activism has not always been welcomed by the Kenyan government. In years past, she was labeled subversive, and was beaten and jailed. But she remains committed to the idea that environmental concerns are important to peace. "When our resources become scarce, we fight over them," she says. "In managing our resources and in sustainable development, we plant the seeds of peace." |
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