African American Woman Activist for Justice for South Africa's Children Comes Home to the U.S. in March 2005

(PRWEB) January 31, 2005

?Powerful in its message and arresting in its fervent plea to make sense of the senseless, this book is a clarion call to the God in all of us that we might wake up and stop the madness.? --LeVar Burton, actor, director, and children?s advocate

Claudia J. Ford?African American woman, globetrotting ex-patriot, midwife, activist, scholar, feminist, author, mother?has spent the past several years spreading global awareness of the horrors of infant rape in sub-Saharan Africa. She was inspired to do this by her adoption of an infant named Vyanna, who at five months old survived a brutal gang rape on the streets of Johannesburg, South Africa, where Ford has made her home for a number of years. Ford will be traveling to the United States in March 2005, and will be available for appearances, workshops, speaking engagements, and media interviews.

Ford?s life story thus far has been nothing less than extraordinary. Since graduating Barnard College in 1976, she has lived on nearly every continent on the world, honing her expertise on issues of international development while raising three sons on her own. Her sons are now grown men who continue to inform Ford?s scholarly work around notions of masculinity and power, particularly in the realm of childrearing. Ford?s work in this realm of late has crystallized around her experiences mothering Vyanna. Ford?s recently published memoir, Why Do I Scream at God for the Rape of Babies? (North Atlantic Books, December 2004, Trade Paperback, $ 9.95, ISBN: 1-55643-547-9) chronicles the first two years of Vyanna?s life, beginning with their first chance meeting in a Johannesburg hospital ward.

Claudia J. Ford and the organization she founded, The Princess Trust, are taking on infant rape itself, raising funds to provide support for survivors while studying the root causes of such an epidemic with an eye towards bringing it to an end. Her efforts have reached the attention of Oprah Winfrey, who hosted Ford on The Oprah Winfrey Show in July of 2004. With its frank and multi-faceted approach to this issue, along with 51 percent of its proceeds going to The Princess Trust, Why Do I Scream at God for the Rape of Babies? is an enormous part of those efforts.

For press materials, review copies, or to interview Claudia J. Ford, please contact Olivia Ford, Publicist, North Atlantic Books/Frog, Ltd., (510) 559-8277 ext. 18, oford@northatlanticbooks.com.

# # #

Related Princess And The Frog Press Releases