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Kenyan students to receive a scholarship to study in the United States as part of a precursor program to the Peace Corps, originated by then-Senator John F. Kennedy in 1959. Wangari Maathai returned to Kenya in the early 1960s with a degree in biology and academic aspirations but soon left the university to commit her life to helping community groups (especially women and girls) restore her largely deforested and environmentally degraded homeland. Decades of planting trees (more than 50 million and counting)—by Green Belt Movement groups—have resulted in restored forests and recovering ecosystems. GBM’s work with Maathai’s leadership also greatly raised public awareness about the environment, empowered thousands of Kenyans to take action, and changed the nation. Illegal logging was exposed, and transparency and public participation in natural resource management were enhanced. For this amazing accomplishment, Wangari Maathai was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. In spite of her untimely death in 2011, GBM continues its good work with an active staff and new leadership, including GBM’s international programs director and Wangari’s daughter, Wanjira Mathai. Forest restoration in Kenya has had the added benefit of renewing the flow of springs and streams,
and the general impression of improved water quality and quantity. GBM was advised by one of its many funding agencies, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), to do a more systematic and quantified assessment of the aquatic resource, and this led to the first contact with GWW at Auburn. A community-based water monitoring approach that built on GBM’s decades of mobilizing local people to plant trees seemed to be the most practical and effective way for collecting watershed data. Following countless emails, videoconferences, and a trip to the Sub-Saharan Africa Program Office of EPA in Washington, D.C., by AU representatives of GWW and the Water Resources Center, a plan for collaboration unfolded for establishing a water-monitoring program in Kenya. The first two trips to Kenya by the GWW director in November 2012 and March 2013 were to meet partners, orient GBM staff, and elaborate on a plan for starting a water-monitoring program. International travel expenses for these initial visits were funded by the Jack and Mary Tankersley Endowment to the AU School of Fisheries. This endowment was established by the late AU School of Engineering alumnus Jack Tankersley for community development projects to benefit underserved people worldwide. Because of a trip