Wonder Women

"Wangari Maathai came to Atlanta to receive an Honorary Degree from Morehouse College. Andrew Young's office invited me to be with her at a luncheon. Andrew Young was the Atlanta mayor during a lone period of Trees Atlanta's downtown street tree plantings. Wangari came to Kansas in her 20's to go to college and studied biology. (The program to bring young African's to America was sponsored by Young - it brought 300 African students to America.) When she returned to Africa she saw the results of deforestation and its affects on the women of Africa. She started by planting a few trees in downtown Nairobi and it grew to millions of trees planted by millions of women. She is an inspiration about what one person can do to make the world better with persistence and optimism. Our meeting was a true joy for me."
--Marcia D. Bansley
Executive Director
Trees Atlanta
Office 404-522-4097
Fax 404-522-6855
www.treesatlanta.org
Wangari Maathai: Celebrate Spring, Plant a Tree

NAIROBI, Kenya (17 April 2006)-Wangari Maathai, founder of the Green Belt Movement International and winner of the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize, today called on all members of the human family to celebrate this year's Earth Day on April 22 by planting a tree and considering the links between a healthy environment and peace.

"When planting your tree, think about how even small acts can have significant results and how each one of us can help bring peace into our troubled world," Maathai said. "When we deplete our finite resources, we begin to fight for the few that are left."

"The planet does not belong to those in power," said Maathai, the first environmentalist to win the Nobel Peace Prize. "It is a gift to all of us, not only a source of profound beauty but the sustenance for all life. And each one of us can help conserve and protect the Earth."

Learn more at http://www.greenbeltmovement.org/a.php?id=153
and on the News Desk at TreeLink
Also see http://www.greenbeltmovement.org/