Lecture: Wangari Maathai and the Green Belt Movement
| Date/Time: | Monday, 26 Mar 2012 at 7:00 pm |
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| Location: | Sun Room, Memorial Union |
| Cost: | Free |
| Contact: | |
| Phone: | 515-294-9934 |
| Channel: | Lecture Series |
| Categories: | Diversity Lectures Live Green |
| Actions: | Download iCal/vCal | Email Reminder |
Anne Clifford is a former consultant for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops' Environmental Justice Program and has written on the topic of Catholicism and environmental stewardship. She is also the author of "Introducing Feminist Theology" and coeditor of "Christology: Memory, Inquiry, Practice."
On September 25, 2011, during the year designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Forests, the world lost an extraordinary woman, Wangari Muta Maathai, founder of the Green Belt Movement. Earning her bachelor's and master's degrees in the United States thanks to Kennedy Foundation African Students' scholarships, Maathai became the first woman in eastern Africa to obtain a Ph.D. in science. In 2004 Maathai also became the first environmentalist and first African woman to be awarded a Noble Peace Prize for her founding of the Green Belt Movement. She received this prestigious award in recognition for her tireless efforts to advocate for sustainable development, the eradication of poverty, the growth of democracy, and peace-making by planting trees.
This lecture will pay tribute to this extraordinary woman by drawing attention to how her knowledge of the biological sciences and the influence of Catholic Social Teachings prompted her to work with nearly 900,000 women to plant forty-five million trees in her native Kenya and in thirty other African nations. Through the Green Belt Movement Maathai empowered women, most of whom were poor and illiterate, to rise up and walk together into the future buoyed by hope and committed to peace.