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to walk farther and farther in search of firewood to cook or warm the house. Without trees,

there were no roots to hold the soil in place.

The rich top soil was blown away by the wind. Rain had washed the loose earth into the
streams and rivers, dirtying them with silt.

“We have no clean drinking water,” the women of the countryside complained, “no firewood

to cook with. Our goats and cows have nothing to graze on, so they are starving. We are
becoming poorer by the day.”

Wangari saw that the people had forgotten to care for the land that fed them. The land had
become weak and therefore could no longer take care of the people and their lives became

harder than ever.

The people blamed each other, they blamed the government, but Wangari was not one to
complain. She wanted to do something.

“Think of what we ourselves are doing,” she urged the women. “We are cutting down the

trees of Kenya.”

“When we are part of the problem,” she said, “we can become part of the solution.”

She had a simple and bright idea. “Why not plant trees?” she asked the women.

Wangari showed them how to collect seeds. She taught them to prepare the soil by mixing
it with manure. She showed them how to wet that soil, press a hole in it with a stick, and

carefully insert a seed. She also showed them how to tend the growing seedlings, as if they
were babies, watering them twice a day to make sure they grew strong.

It wasn’t easy. But Wangari was not the one to give up, and showed others how not to give up.
It was a lot of heavy work but the women felt proud. Slowly, all around them they could see

the fruit of their labour. Their families were healthier,
eating from the fruit trees they had planted and from

the vegetable plots that had grown so well. The work
brought them together as one. Soon, the men joined
in.

Wangari gave seedlings to the schools and taught the

children how to make their own nurseries. She gave
seedlings to inmates of prisons and even to soldiers.

And so, in the thirty years since Wangari started

the ‘Green Belt Movement,’ thirty million trees were
planted in Kenya and the planting hasn’t stopped.

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