Women's Role in Improving Community Welfare Coursework (Coursework Sample)

Women’s Role in Improving Community Welfare: Wangari Maathai
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Women’s Role in Improving Community Welfare: Wangari Maathai
Even though Wangari Maathai was raised in an African country where at that time, colonization and poverty prowled the communities, she was envisioned in introducing sustainable development, especially among women whose rights had been demeaned and unacknowledged by the society. Her struggle for education and life, in general, portrayed a woman who was committed to eradicating poverty while still ensuring that natural resources were saved from human encroachment. Through her life, as expounded in her book, Unbowed, we acknowledge the contribution of African women to the enhancement of the welfare of the society on critical fronts, such as education, politics and social welfares.
Maathai’s Commitment towards Improving Kenyan Society
Maathai decided to break the denial of education to women by ensuring that she pursues education to the peak (Maathai, 2008). Even though she was a woman, she decidedly joined school, an unusual practice for young girls in the African set up (Scott, 2013). Evidently, her determination to prove that women were equally capable of attaining education was demonstrated using her continued emphasis on academics while other girls were married off at puberty. Education was the root course of her future commitment to empowering women.
Even though the Africans in Kenya were engaged in a physical war with the colonialists, she certainly knew that gaining education was the best way to improve the welfare of his people (Maathai, 2008; Scott, 2013). While at school, Mau Mau war developed, which was a protest by Africans whose land had been grabbed by the whites. At this time, she moved from the catholic primary school to Loreto Girls High School, where she underwent her secondary education. In her desire for further education she sought and got a scholarship in Mount St. scholastic College in Atchison, Kansas in the year 1964. After gaining such educational heights, she could reason with leaders who had been granted the leadership mantle from the colonialists. She hoped to work closely with them to improve the welfare of the people (Scott, 2013).
Back in the country, independence was coming fast, and the whites had acknowledged the fact that soon, Kenya was going to be a liberal country with an independent government. Clearly, this was a result of war and the increased outcry from the educated Africans, for the need to end the oppression that was perpetrated by the Whites regime. The fight for independence had been as a result of war (Mau Mau revolution) and peace talks in the country. The war leaders could not lead the country properly as they had no education nor required government leadership skills. Therefore, people like Wangari Maathai were the appropriate leaders of the country, once they gain knowledge that she was pursuing abroad (Scott, 3013).
While Maathai was in the United States, she realized that there was extreme racism in the country. However, she decided not to succumb to the oppression that Black Americans were suffering from. Even though this would extensively affect her study, as an African woman all the way from Kenya, she did not give up. In fact, after finishing her undergraduate’s degree, she pursued her studies at a master level, still in the United States. She attained a Master of Science degree from the University of Pittsburgh in the year 1966.
Having achieved a master’s degree, she came back to her motherland, where the country had just attained independence and full of a promising future. She loved her country. She was happy to finally join the citizens as they continue building their country to the level of glory she had just witnessed in the United States. She had already fallen in love with the president’s speech as she heard it from a car as she was driven from the airport after landing in Kenya. She made up her kind to use her knowledge to contribute to the development of the country.
In her desire to end the destruction of the environment, she wanted to join the parliament, from where she could quickly develop her agenda, by airing her concerns about the degradation of the environment. However, she was denied a chance, and her job was taken away from her. She later realized that her teaching job had been given someone else (Scott, 2013). She had no job, no money. Luckily, she just had so much time to commit to her GBM, her new organization that was rapidly growing across the country. The organization's growth can be traced to the unity of women who had become members (Scott, 2013). Her genuine commitment to stemming societal problem saw the organization receive funding from overseas countries in Europe and the United States. She used this fortune to empower the society, especially women through planting trees and financing community projects that were engendered towards poverty eradication.
Later on, she discovered that the environment was being destroyed by the increasing rate of deforestation, as soil erosion was extensively taking huge chunks of the rich top soil (Jungck, 1985). This was causing suffering among many people as well as animals. She knew that she had to do something to save the environment. Her resolution yielded the Green Belt Movement. This was a movement that would ensure that forest cover is reinstalled using the planted trees. In addition to returning the forest cover, the movement gave women an opportunity to earn income as they could sell the trees and sustain their life (Napoli, 2012). This double-edged project gained popularity fast and would preoccupy her for the rest of her life.
Maathai was keen to oppose insensible development projects that the government wanted to run. One of her biggest fight against misappropriation of funds was when she went against the government as it was about to set off a building project of a sixty-floor house that would be erected at Uhuru Park. She wrote to international organizations and journalists about what the government wanted to do, a fight that saw her company kicked out of her renting building and relocated to her home. Eventually, she won the fight against the government which relented and quitted the project. The positive result of this attempt was that she developed a seed of opposition and democracy. This seed would later grow into the multiparty system as the country had remained a one-party state, a condition that spearheaded a disguised tyrannical government.
Using her influence, she scared President Moi, who saw that his government was becoming weak under the hands of Wangari Maathai. He embarked on provoking tribal wars, a divide and rule policy, that would redirect attention from his atrocities to the new havoc along the Kenyan tribes. Maathai took the saving mantle of the country and sought diplomatic help from countries that would listen to her woe. She, an African woman, was committed to saving the country from a weak government that had caused many problems among the Kenyan citizens.
The climax of her battle for improved welfare came when she objected the corrupt government’s officials land grabbing exercise at Karura Forest (Jungck, 1985). The government leaders would seize the land, cut the trees and use the plots for self-development such as building houses. Those who were loyal to the government ...