Word: maathai
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Dates: during 1990-1990
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...Wangari Maathai took on a formidable mission: holding back Kenya's advancing desert. Rampant tree cutting and unchecked population growth have stripped much of the country's land, generating hunger and poverty. In response, Maathai organized the Green Belt Movement, a national tree-planting program run by women. "Because women here are responsible for their children, they cannot sit back, waste time and see them starve," explains Maathai, 49, who was the first Kenyan woman to earn a Ph.D. (in anatomy) and the first to become a professor at the University of Nairobi...
With GBM's support, women establish nurseries within their villages and then persuade farmers to accept and raise tree seedlings. GBM pays the women 2 cents for each native plant they grow; exotic species are worth one-fifth as much. Farmers get the plants for free. So far, Maathai has recruited about 50,000 women, who have spurred the planting of 10 million trees. She still has a long way to go toward her original goal of planting a tree for every Kenyan (the population is now about 24 million), but in the meantime, her idea has inspired similar movements...