Just recently I have started my own program called KIDSCARE, organizing kids in the United States and Europe to help fellow students in schools in Africa or to raise money to buy wheelchairs for kids around the world. I love it – helping kids help other kids.

Photo: Kakuta and Cristina with 6th grade students Julius E. Sprauve School on St. John, in 2008. He first met these kids in 2001 when they were 1st graders.

The most exciting thing in my writing life right now is helping women start their own magazines.  In 1998 Women to Women was born in Ethiopia, and in 2001 La Parole aux Femmes (Women Speak Out) started in Mali. Giving women a voice is thrilling, and both magazines work to provide inspiration and information to young and old, urban and rural women.