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Last night Clinton students and others had the opportunity to listen to the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Wangari Maathai speak as part of the Dean and Kula Kumpuris Distinguished Lecture Series at the Clinton Presidential Library.
Wangari is the founder of the Green Belt Movement International, a grassroots community development program that began as a project to empower women in Kenya to lift themselves and their families from poverty. Unconsciously this program has simultaneously become an international advocacy group for the protection and rehabilitation of the environment.
At the close of her speech she discussed the difficulties of working as an environmental advocate in that sometimes the issues can become overwhelming. She told the tale of one hummingbird trying to put out a forest fire one drop of water at a time, while the other animals watched. The other animals told the bird that is futile to try and put out the fire and to just watch the forest burn from the edge with them. But the hummingbird was persistent and kept working. They animals asked why and the little bird said that it was doing the best it can. Ultimately that is our calling. To do the best we can.
Through this program, this movement has planted over one billion trees in Africa. They are now working on their second billion. Read more about this amazing organization at www.greenbeltmovement.org.
Wangari is the founder of the Green Belt Movement International, a grassroots community development program that began as a project to empower women in Kenya to lift themselves and their families from poverty. Unconsciously this program has simultaneously become an international advocacy group for the protection and rehabilitation of the environment.
At the close of her speech she discussed the difficulties of working as an environmental advocate in that sometimes the issues can become overwhelming. She told the tale of one hummingbird trying to put out a forest fire one drop of water at a time, while the other animals watched. The other animals told the bird that is futile to try and put out the fire and to just watch the forest burn from the edge with them. But the hummingbird was persistent and kept working. They animals asked why and the little bird said that it was doing the best it can. Ultimately that is our calling. To do the best we can.
Through this program, this movement has planted over one billion trees in Africa. They are now working on their second billion. Read more about this amazing organization at www.greenbeltmovement.org.
In the fight against global warming, one of the most overlooked tools is our trees. When is the last time you planted a tree in you community?
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