Wangari Maathai

We are so proud of the various female African leaders and the impact they have made in Africa and the rest of the world! One of the amazing female African leaders that we would like to celebrate is Wangari Maathai!

Wangari Maathai (1940 - 2011) was the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree. In 2004, she became the first African woman Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. In the 1970s, she founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental non-governmental organization dedicated to the planting of trees, environmental conservation, and women's rights. The Green Belt Movement allowed her to assist women in planting millions of trees on their farms, churches, and schools. Maathai was internationally acknowledged for her tireless struggle for democracy, environmental conservation, and human rights. Source: The Green Belt Movement