BACKGROUND

The story of the hummingbird, as told by Professor Wangari Maathai, a Kenyan environmental and political activist, Nobel Laureate and writer is what inspired the work that we continue to do; She says: ‘We are constantly being bombarded by problems that we face and sometimes we can get completely overwhelmed. The story of the hummingbird is about this huge forest being consumed by a fire. All the animals in the forest come out and they are transfixed as they watch the forest burning and they feel very overwhelmed, very powerless, except this little hummingbird. It says, ‘I’m going to do something aboutthe fire!’. So itflies to the nearest stream and takes a drop of water. It puts it on the fire, and goes up and down, up and down, up and down, as fast as it can. In the meantime, all the other animals, much bigger animals— like the elephant with a big trunk that could bring much more water—are standing there helpless. And they are saying to the hummingbird, ‘What do you think you can do? You are too little. This fire is too big. Your wings are too small and your beak is so small that you can only bring a small drop of water at a time. ‘But as they continue to discourage it, it turns to them without wasting any time and it tells them ‘I am doing the best I can.’