Question

Wangari Maathai was the founder of the ______ movement in ______.
1. Libing, Negro Movement
2. New York; Polish Movement
3. Kenya; Green Belt Movement
4. China; Sedang Movement

Answer 1

Correct Answer - Option 3 : Kenya; Green Belt Movement

• Wangari Maathai was the founder of the Green Belt Movement and the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.
• She authored four books: The Green Belt Movement; Unbowed: A Memoir; The Challenge for Africa; and Replenishing the Earth. 
• Wangari Muta Maathai was born in Nyeri, a rural area of Kenya (Africa), in 1940. She obtained a degree in Biological Sciences from Mount St. Scholastica College in Atchison, Kansas (1964), a Master of Science degree from the University of Pittsburgh (1966), and pursued doctoral studies in Germany and the University of Nairobi, before obtaining a Ph.D. (1971) from the University of Nairobi.
• The first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a doctorate degree, Professor Maathai became chair of the Department of Veterinary Anatomy and an associate professor in 1976 and 1977 respectively. In both cases, she was the first woman to attain those positions in the region. 
• Professor Maathai was active in the National Council of Women of Kenya (1976–1987) and was its chairman (1981–1987). In 1976, while she was serving in the National Council of Women, Professor Maathai introduced the idea of community-based tree planting.
• She continued to develop this idea into a broad-based grassroots organisation, the Green Belt Movement (GBM), whose main focus is poverty reduction and environmental conservation through tree planting. 
• She served on the Commission for Global Governance and the Commission on the Future. 
• In 2010 she was appointed to the Millennium Development Goals Advocacy Group: a panel of political leaders, business people and activists established with the aim to galvanise worldwide support for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
• She founded the Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace and Environmental Studies (WMI). 
• Professor Maathai died on 25 September 2011 at the age of 71 after a battle with ovarian cancer.