One Hen from Kids Can Press: An Inspiring Story of a Child's Determination to Escape Poverty

26 Feb 2008 11:30 Africa/Lagos


One Hen from Kids Can Press: An Inspiring Story of a Child's Determination to Escape Poverty

CHAPPAQUA, N.Y., Feb. 26 /PRNewswire/ --

While children in Western countries usually don't worry about access to food, shelter, and the opportunity to attend school, three billion people worldwide struggle to live on less than $2 a day. Kids Can Press, publishers of Ryan and Jimmy, One Well, and If the World Were a Village, is known for its books that raise kids' social consciousness. One Hen: How One Small Loan Made a Big Difference, written by Katie Smith Milway and illustrated by Eugenie Fernandes, encourages children ages 7 and up to think about the power we each have to initiate positive changes in the world. In addition, children can play online games to experience the impact a small loan has on a virtual village at www.onehen.org. The One Hen website also features video stories, links to microlending organizations, and special sections for parents, teachers, and librarians.


One Hen tells the story of Kojo, a boy from Ghana who uses the proceeds from a small loan to build a thriving farm. Kojo's story demonstrates the impact that microloans -- a lending system for people in developing countries who have no collateral and no access to conventional banking -- can have on one boy and his community.


At the end of Milway's fictional tale, children learn the true story of Kwabena Darko, the inspiration for One Hen. Mr. Darko built the largest poultry operation in East Africa and now sits on the board of Opportunity International, one of the world's biggest microcredit lending organizations. One Hen also explains the microloan system and offers information about relevant organizations for families to explore.


Author Katie Smith Milway has lived in Africa and worked with village banking programs. "When I stumbled on Kwabena Darko's story, I knew I had found a way to tell children about the power that one small loan can have to change lives," she says. Illustrator Eugenie Fernandes referenced an extensive collection of East African photographs so that her evocative and colorful illustrations would reflect Ghana accurately.


For more information about One Hen and microlending, visit www.onehen.org.


Source: Kids Can Press

CONTACT: Raab Associates Inc. for Kids Can Press, +1-914-241-2117,
info@raabassociates.com


Web site: http://www.onehen.org/


NOTE TO EDITORS: Kwabena Darko available for interviews in New York March 3-4; Katie Smith Milway available on an ongoing basis in Boston and New York.

Hopeless Love As A Metaphor for Despair

Hopeless Love As A Metaphor for Despair

I have been more of a spectator of the different scenarios of the drama of life, as I watch more in amusement than bewilderment, how humans live through the existential realities of life on earth, their battle of wits and instincts to create an ideal society in the development and advancement of human civilization.

I often brood and ponder over how humans act and react in different circumstances and the influences of these circumstances form their experiences in their development in a particular environment.

The culture of nature is full of imperfections and malfunctions as human inhibitions and laws contradict the natural dispositions of their instincts.

All humans are naturally romantic and erotic creatures and respond to their stimuli for sexual pleasures as they thirst for water or want food. But the question of right and wrong causes disruptions as they continue to make corrections to balance the equations of life on earth.

Here is one of my case studies in Lagos, Nigeria.

She is hopelessly in love with an older man since she knew him when she was only six. Now she is 19 and her heart still beats faster whenever she sees him. Her parents like him and he respects them. They see him as a very disciplined and kind uncle, but she wants him to be her lover. She feels intimidated in his company as he is often surrounded by a bevy of beauties, white and black and she would feel outshined by the older women. No day passes that she does not wish to be wrapped in his arms. He has left and ignored her and she has dated boys of her age group, but she has lost interest in them and now feels guilty that she gave her virginity away to one of these boys. She wants Jimmy to love her as he would love his older women, but she is afraid of going to him without what he advised her to preserve till marriage. At 18, she was still a virgin and offered herself to him and thought he would be anxious and curious to deflower her, but he politely declined and did not even embrace or kiss her. She could not believe he would reject her. She has tried to ignore him and forget him, but she has failed. She does not hide anything from him, she gave him access to her only e-mail account, just to show him how honest, and transparent she is. Her parents know she loves him, but they are afraid that he will not marry her even though he has not married any of his numerous female companions who cannot stop loving him. They pray their daughter to find a suitable suitor and get over her passion for Jimmy, but she knows they can never stop the festering thoughts of her unfulfilled love for the only man who makes her feel the depth of her being.


N.B:

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