2004-10-17
This is Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Development
Report.
Kenyan environmental activist
Wangari Maathai says poor women can fight poverty and help the
environment by planting trees. In December, she will receive the
Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to save the forests of Africa.
Wangari Maathai is the twelfth woman since nineteen oh one to win
the prize. Last year the Norwegian Nobel Committee also recognized a
woman, Shirin Ebadi of Iran. She is a lawyer who has fought for
human rights for women.
But this is the first time the peace prize will go to an African
woman. It is also the first time someone within the environmental
movement has been recognized at such a high level. The Nobel
Committee said: "Peace on earth depends on our ability to secure our
living environment."
In nineteen seventy-seven, Wangari Maathai started the Green Belt
Movement. The goal is to plant trees all over Africa, to replace
those cut down over the years. Trees are the main source of cooking
fuel. Trees also protect wildlife. And they keep nutrients in the
soil and help prevent flooding.
Today the program operates in a number of countries. A reported
thirty million trees have been planted.
Young trees are grown from seeds at thousands of nurseries. The
Green Belt Movement gives these young trees to communities. Locally
trained people advise women farmers about planting and taking care
of the trees. The movement pays farmers for every tree that
survives. Later the women can use some of the trees for fuel.
Professor Maathai is sixty-four years old. She studied in the
United States and Kenya. She is believed to have been the first
woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree. She
became a professor of animal science at the University of Nairobi.
But her activism angered the former government in Kenya. She was
beaten and arrested.
Now, she is assistant minister of environment, natural resources
and wildlife.
But she does not speak out only about the environment. In August,
she called the AIDS virus a biological weapon to control black
people. Later, she said her comments were meant to get people to ask
questions and not think of AIDS as a "curse from God."
Wangari Maathai will receive the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo on
December tenth. She will also receive almost one point four million
dollars in prize money.
This VOA Special English Development Report was written by Gary
Garriott. This is Gwen Outen.