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Live from Abu Dhabi Connect the World takes you on a journey across continents, investigating the stories that are changing our world.
Quiz author and adventurer Connor Grennan
In search of something different, author Connor Grennan undertook the adventure of a lifetime by taking a trip around the globe for one year.
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2011/images/01/26/connor.art.lp.jpg
caption="Connor Grennan is your Connector of the Day."]
Before taking in the majestic and beautiful sights of far-flung regions, Grennan started things off by volunteering at the Little Princes children's home in Nepal for three months.
However, while he was there, he soon found out that the place wasn't your typical 'orphanage'.
The home was actually a place where children were abandoned after being taken from their parents. Child traffickers were promising families in small villages to protect their kids from civil war - for a huge fee - by taking them to safety.
Instead, they would be left to fend for themselves in the chaos of Nepal's capital, Kathmandu.
Grennan undertook the task of trying to reunite the children with their parents and dedicated much of his time to that goal.
Here's your chance to quiz Connor Grennan on this difficult task.
Please leave your questions for him below and be sure to include where you're writing from.
I don't want to ask even one single question. I simply want Connor Grennar to know that what he is doing is fantastic and that he has helped to renew my faith in the goodness of humanity.
damn.
First, I believe that your outcome will be great since you have been doing this from your heart and your own goodwill!!! Thank you for taking such an amazing dificult task and making it a wonderful one for those you have been able to help!!!
Second, have you been able to make progress on reuniting kids with their families? and, could you see yourself as an embassador for this children and perhaps make a stand for this in Nepal?
thank you and good luck!!
Gildamaria
Guatemala, Central America
Hi Connor,
Good luck on this difficult task.
Since the maoist civil war has ended, does that provide the safety needed for the child to return or are their other factions at work in the districts these children are from that make their home environment unsafe?
In my time volunteering in Nepal, it was obvious that there is a very serious sex trafficking problem especially into India. Are some of the kids victims of that as well? If so, is there rehabilitation help for them?
Lastly, are you single?
🙂
Thanks,
Juliette
NYC
Regardless of what one's particular belief system is we all know that for
people like Connor, and the many, many others who so selflessly give
a part of their time, and I'm sure their souls, their is indeed a special
place in heaven, or wherever, awaiting them.
First off may God be with you, because it will not be easy, but He is always on anyones side who is working for him. You will change lives.
If there is anything that I can help with please let me know. Also, are you being protected by local authority? Or have you been recieving any threats from the traffickers? How are families reacting when they find out the truth behind everything?
I wish you the best, if there is anything I can help with let me know.
Lucia
Nicaragua
"When good men die their goodness does not perish But lives though they are gone. As for the bad All that was theirs dies and is buried with them." -Euripides
Connor is a good man.
Madrid, Spain
@Juliette.. Conor is married. He met his wife in Nepal!! Great love story. I'm a classmate of his at UVA!
Hi Conor, I just finished your book, The Little Princes. It was a wonderful read – I actually got choked up at the end. A happy conclusion for these kids is rare in Nepal – yours is truly an inspirational story.
I cannot wait to read this book that was recommended to me by my dear friend with expert literary taste. I am already inspired by the reviews!
Hello Connor Grennan and CNN friends,
I would like an answer from Connor Grennan on the following questions:
– How are going to Improve our world?
– What can we expect from you in 2011?
I am awaiting Connor Grennan’s replies.
Greetings,
Jurgen R. Brul
Hometown: Paramaribo
Nativity country: Suriname
I have just finished reading Conor's book. Wonderful!!Do they (Conor & Liz) still go back to Nepal?Would love to know how the children from original story are doing?Will Conor be writing another book?And how is Finn?
Thanks for this round-up, Jackie (I am printing your list for furtehr reference!). I have read the Capote, Larson and Hillebrand books and I agree, they are great (I am thinking I should re-read In Cold Blood someday because I actually read that one about 20 years ago). I have Little Princes in my stacks and I really should get to that one. All the rest of the books on your list have, at one time or another, come to my attention and piqued my interest. Other books I think are worthwhile in this category:The Translator by Daoud Hari (really a memoir but very powerful book about Darfur)The Other Side of the River by Alex Kotlowitz (a terrific book centered around the death of a teenager which is an astonishing look at race and socioeconomic disparities in the US)Everything is Broken by Emma Larkin (about the aftermath of the Category 4 Cyclone, Nargis, in Burma in 2008)An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination by Elizabeth McCracken (a memoir which explores the pain of losing a child a wonderfully written book that made me cry)