Kenya: 2011 Nobel Peace Prize Winner visits Green Belt Movement to honour Prof. Wangari Maathai

By Staff Writer

NAIROBI---Leymah Roberta Gbowee, winner of Nobel Peace Prize for 2011 on  August 14 2012,is scheduled to visit Green Belt Movement offices at Kilimani, Kenya to honour the legacy of the late Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wangari Maathai at 11:00 a.m.

Leymah Gbowee is a Liberian peace activist responsible for leading a women's peace movement that brought an end to the Second Liberian Civil War in 2003. Her involvement and leadership led to the election of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf in Liberia. She along with Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Tawakkul Karman, were awarded the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize "for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women's rights to full participation in peace-building work.

Leymah Gbowee has a lot in common with the late Prof. Wangari Maathai. Through Leymah’s leadership, thousands of women staged pray-ins and non-violent protests demanding reconciliation and the resuscitation of high-level peace talks in Liberia. Through their work both women continue to inspire millions across the world to pursue peace, justice, good governance and promotion of sustainable development.

During her visit to the Green Belt Movement she will plant a tree to honour of the late Prof. Wangari Maathai.

The Green Belt Movement’s (GBM) was  founded in 1977 by Professor Wangari Maathai.Its work has focused on conserving the environment by empowering rural African women and their families and creating sustainable livelihoods. Through community empowerment education GBM provides a strong sense of self-knowledge and realization which has enabled communities to embrace conscious pursuit for peaceful co-existence and a people driven socio-political-economic development. Through this process, they learn to make linkages between the challenges they face and environmental degradation. This leads to community-led action and a commitment to safeguard natural resources.