'The World According to Girls

At a time when the U.K. and parts of the U.S. are turning their backs on immigrants fleeing from hardship and danger, this inspiring book will appeal to Canadian teens and their mothers who feel proud to live in a country that still opens its doors to the world. There is a deep well of caring in Canada about the plight of refugees and of girls in developing countries who are denied the opportunity for an education.

This beautifully designed and photographed book taps into that national interest by portraying, in vivid pictures and words, the lives of over a dozen courageous teenage girls of Kakuma Refugee Camp in northwestern Kenya. The girls, who travelled to Kakuma from five different African countries, talk about what it's like to escape from violence, build a new life, go to high school and dream big for the future. They have to deal with the risk of assault and the gritty boredom of life in a refugee camp, and yet they delight in the same things as girls everywhere.

The 17-year-old author will participate in a national PR campaign, including national newspapers, magazines, television and radio, discussing the friendship between the girls in her high school and the girls in Kakuma, as expressed through their touching correspondence.

Clare Morneau, age 17, is in grade 12 at Havergal College, a girls' school in Toronto. She got the idea to create the book after organizing the exchange of letters between girls at Havergal and Kakuma, where her father's insurance company had created a girls' high school. As Clare put it: "I want the voices of the Kakuma Girls to be heard, and I want to show how education fosters hope."

Clare Morneau's profile page