Wangarĩ Muta Maathai was a Kenyan environmental political activist and Nobel. She was born on April 1, 1940 in Nyeri, Kenya. Wangari schooled in the United States at Mount St. Scholastica and the University of Pittsburgh, and obtained a degree at the University of Nairobi in Kenya. She was named the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree. Wangari Maathai also became chair of the Department of Veterinary Anatomy and an associate professor in 1976. She was the first woman to attain both of those positions in the region. She served on the National Council of Women where she introduced the idea of community-based tree planting and the Green Belt Movement. Her focus was towards poverty reduction and environmental conservation through planting trees. Wangari is associated with peace because of her “holistic approach to sustainable development that embraces democracy, human rights, and women’s rights in particular.” when she launched the Green Belt Movement it was an incentive to reforest her beloved country while helping the nation’s women. She felt that women needed income and resources due to depletion. Wangari’s focus was to solve these issues as a whole.
Wangari Maathai was internationally acknowledged for her fight for democracy, human rights, and environmental conservation. She was appointed Goodwill Ambassador to the Congo Basin Forest Ecosystem, which was followed by her efforts to help find the Nobel Women’s Initiative. She was named a messenger of peace due to her deep commitment to the environment and her focus towards climate change. In 2010, she was appointed to the Millennium Development Goals Advocacy Group and became a trustee of the Karura Forest Environmental Education Trust. In partnership with the University of Nairobi, she founded the Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies.
After her death in September of 2011, Former U.S. vice president Al Gore was among those who offered remembrances of Maathai. He stated, “Wangari overcame incredible obstacles to devote her life to service. Service to her children, to her constituents, to the women, and indeed all the people of Kenya—and to the world as a whole,” I believe in this statement entirely. Wangari Maathai is a powerful example of how one person can be a force for change. After much research, I believe one thing Wangari has motivated me to do it be persistent. She has received many accomplishments for her efforts towards peace and has left a mark so remarkable; it allows her legacy to live. Wangari earned all of her titles in efforts to promote and maintain peace. Her drive and ambition towards the matter justifies her position as a peacemaker.