It is not about how much we do, but with how much love we do it. It is not about how much we give, but with how much love we give.
Mother Teresa
Wangari Maathai (1940 – 2011)
Kenyan activist and biologist founded the non-governmental environmental organization Green Belt Movement in 1977. In order to prevent soil erosion and desertification, volunteers from this organization planted over thirty million trees in Kenya alone, and Wangari earned the nickname “The Woman Who Planted Trees” according to Jean Giono’s novel. Afforestation was important not only from a nature conservation perspective, but also as a way to empower women and as a form of resistance against a corrupt government regime. In order to involve other African countries in the project, Maathai launched the African Green Belt Movement Network in 1986. As a result, 45 volunteer representatives from 15 countries launched similar tree planting and local employment programs. In the last years of her life, Maathai (who passed away in September 20 In 2011, at the age of 71, Wangari Maathai worked on preserving the Congo rainforest, the second-largest area covered with tropical forests after the Amazon. She inspired the UN’s global reforestation and tree-planting campaign called “Plant a Billion Trees” on Earth Day, April 22nd. This campaign has been ongoing since 2006 and Croatia has been involved through its non-governmental organizations.