Sarah, Emma, Lydia, Debra, Halima, Mugure, Jackie, Sharon and Joyce pose after the Remembering Wangare event that was held by Positive Circles in Nairobi.

The story of Wangari Maathai is nothing short of phenomenal. She is one remembered for many firsts, including, being the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize and the first woman to become a Doctor of Philosophy in East and Central Africa.

Prof. Wangari Maathai won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004, for her contribution towards sustainable development, democracy and peace – a cause she was committed to for the better part of her life. She realised that the root of most of the problems in Kenya was environmental degradation. She founded the Green Belt Movement – an environmental non-governmental organisation focused on the planting of trees, environmental conservation, and women’s rights.

In her 2010 book, Replenishing the Earth: Spiritual Values for Healing Ourselves and the World, she discussed the impact of the Green Belt Movement, explaining what the group’s civic and environmental seminars stressed…“The importance of communities taking responsibility for their actions and mobilising to address their local needs,” and adding, “We all need to work hard to make a difference in our neighbourhoods, regions, and countries, and in the world as a whole. That means making sure we work hard, collaborate with each other, and make ourselves better agents to change…” (Snippet from Wikipedia).

It’s been 10 years since she passed on and Wangari’s memory still lives on, having fought for, amongst other things, environmental restoration in Kenya, with boldness and great courage. It proved to be a daunting task and unfortunately, she endured some horrific experiences in order to be a voice for the forests. She pressed on and her resilience gave power to many to stand for what they believe in and many others to continue her great work in conservation of the environment in even the smallest ways.

This past weekend, Positive Circles, a community of amazing women, founded by Debra Ouma, hosted an event dubbed #RememberingWangari – 10 years on. It was a wonderful day where the group together with their partners, shared how they remembered Wangari and what she meant to them, through storytelling, pictures and videos.

 

In attendance was:

(Snippets from @PositiveCircles on Instagram)

1. Halima Dolif

Halima is from Kenyatta University, who was an inspiring speaker.  Halima shared why she is proud to be a part of Wangari Maathai’s legacy through climate action initiatives and her pursuit for academic excellence as a young woman from a marginalised community.

She challenged us to become agents of change in our localities and urged us to take up environmental initiatives towards achieving the SDGs. Not only should we take up these initiatives but we must be vocal about them as it’s the only way to bring awareness and change. Her call-to-action was that we must be intentional with our actions, committed to our cause, and united in the fight for our ideals.

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2. Dave Ojay

Dave is an environmental activist and Founder of arts platform – NAAM Festival which is responsible for running the #JusticeforLakeVictoria campaign in the quest of raising awareness on the misappropriation of the largest water resource in Africa; Lake Victoria. He shared with us his journey to protect Africa’s greatest lake and also snippets of his work protecting other lakes around the world through the #mylakemyfuture initiative.

3. Melanie Wangui

Present was also a lovely lovely young lady, Melanie Wangui – a young environmentalist from Kiota School, who shared Wangari Maathai’s story of the Hummingbird. The story is about how we can rally our individual efforts through participation in addressing challenges we face in our world. If only each of us could do their part, what a wonderful place we would live in!

Our biggest takeaway? That we could all contribute to making a difference in our environment. What have you done to play a role in making Kenya a better place to live in? We challenged ourselves to each plant a tree by the end of this year and hope you can join in to do the same.