Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai passed away on Sunday 25th September in Nairobi. She was an inspirational human being who constantly fought for her beliefs and she shows us what a community can achieve when they harness their knowledge and protect their resources.
She created the United Nations Environmental Programme in 1972 and founding the Kenyan Green Belt Movement in 1977, Wangari inspired a nation to plant 45 million trees in Kenya. The GBM movement continues to plant trees and campaign for education, nutrition and other issues that are important to women. She wrote a number of books, which are available on the GBM website.
She was elected as an MP in Kenya in 2002, and became deputy environment minister in 2003. In 2004, she was the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize for her commitment to sustainability, democracy and peace.
EcoStreet praises Wangari Maathai for her lifelong dedication to our beautiful planet. You are our hero… goodbye, you will be missed!
Why not join the Green Belt Movement tree planters and plant a tree in your neighbourhood because, in Wangari’s words “When we plant trees, we plant the seeds of peace and seeds of hope”.
Photo copyright © The Nobel Foundation
A: When Farai’s had his creative way with it!
Farai is a member of the Mother City Craft Collective, a collective of traffic-light crafters who you can see selling their wares as you drive through the streets of Cape Town. This group of Zimbabwean crafters have joined forces to expand their market and create an alternative outlet for their crafts, an online shop. This has brought a new set of challenges for these artists, because the traditional wire & bead and wirework crafts that they produce are pretty heavy, which results in very high postage costs.
To reduce the price of postage (and consequently the carbon footprint of the piece) Farai has come up with an interesting solution. He’s using recycled materials that are a lot lighter than the materials that he usually works with.
These recycled Coke can animals and more are available from the Mother City Craft Collective’s recycled range, and as you’ll see, both the cost of the products and the postage costs are considerably less than the traditional. While buying crafts from this store makes a huge difference in the lives of these traffic-light crafters, by choosing from the recycled range you will be making a huge difference to the environment too.
So while necessity is the mother of invention, isn’t it great when it also leads to recycling, reusing and a greener way of doing things?
Organic cotton green bean
Message to mummies! If you are looking for fantastic teethers I would like to share with you some of the best I have found. We are delighted to be stocking the vegetable and fruit collection from Under the Nile they are just so cool. The green bean is a firm favourite because it’s easy for babies to grasp, lightweight, colourful and soft but with enough firmness to ease aching gums. No chance of babies bashing themselves in the eye either. Or what about this fruit tote which comes complete with 4 different fruits watermelon, banana, pear and grapes.
Lovely tote basket of organic cotton teethers
These fruits and vegetables are all hand picked because they are made from 100% organic cotton which is coloured using metal free and vegetable dyes so no problem about them being chewed and sucked. An additional plus factor is that unlike the usual hard teethers they will absorb the dribble so much less likelihood of a sore face. Machine washable and can be tumble dried so if they get grubby it’s not a problem. Under the Nile are supportive of fair trade so you can feel reassured that your baby’s beloved toy is helping somebody else by ensuring that they are paid a fair wage.
These cute teethers will introduce babies to their 5 a day at an early age and hopefully help develop a positive attitude to eating up their fruit and veggies. All in all they have just got to be a win win buy.
