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Hello, Hello, and good morning. How are you good morning? I

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gotta tell you right from then,
how are you fantastic? Right from the

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very start, I gotta tell you
this is an amazing work of words.

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And I don't want to get lost
and not bring up this question. But

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is there a place where people,
the average person can go to help,

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because I mean, is there a
website? Because I want to make sure

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that we're that people understand how serious
this this story is. Thank you.

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So they can go to ikicknifly dot
com. They're building a community. There,

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there are resources and there are ways
to volunteer, take action and help.

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They can also go to my NGO
website up nay up dot org,

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which is apneap dot org. And
they can go to my website Ruchira Gupta

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dot com, which will also lead
them to wherever they want to go.

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If they want to act, there
are calls to action. If they want

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to find resources, there are resources, and they take them to my nguo

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to volunteer your internet. This is
an amazing story of inspiration and empowerment.

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Young adult readers have got to get
into this story and basically become aware of

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what's going on as well as you
know, protect themselves absolutely, because you

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know, human trafficking is a big
problem and the majority of those affected our

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young people. The averages of a
girl being sold into prostitution in India is

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between nine and thirteen, but in
the United States it's between thirteen and fifteen.

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And the statistics show that, you
know, more than three hundred thousand

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people are trapped in situations of sex
trafficking in the United States right now,

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and most of them are from United
States, not from India. This affects

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me because Charlotte, according to research, is number four in the nation for

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human trafficking, and it just shocks
me that that we're still not talking about

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it the way we should be,
and books like this I Kick and I

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Fly really will start a conversation.
I wrote Iki Can I Fly so that

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I could reach young people and tell
them a story about standing up to human

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trafficking, sexual abuse, bullying,
body shaming and winning. You know that

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they can stand up to injustice and
win. Iki Can I Fly is about

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like a fourteen year old girl who's
about to be sold into prostitution, but

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becomes a kung fu champion instead with
a little help from a woman's right advocate

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and her mother and a community of
women who stand by her. And you

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know, the thing is, Iki
Can I Fly is based on true stories

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generated in my own Engeo Up Nap, where girls just like the girls in

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Iki Can I Fly did win gold
medals in karate, did finish school,

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finish college and have jobs now and
have helped their mothers out of sex trafficking.

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So this can be done. And
the reason I wrote Iki Can I

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Fly, and the reason I chose
to publish Iki Can I Fly It's called

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a Stick, was because I wanted
to get the book out to young adults.

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I want to talk to young people
about things which matter to them,

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which are prevalent in their lives,
but nobody talks to them about and what

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better way than through the voice of
a young girl. So true, so

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true. But you know what's you
know what's interesting is that I'm going to

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see a lot of adults picking up
this book, and even though it is

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a YA book, they're they're gonna
find their their own stories in there as

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well. So I really do see
it to be a wide open book for

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everybody. I think it's a crossover
book also because you know, the character

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of the woman's right advocate. You
know, how she tries to overcome so

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many difficulties and challenges to help this
most marginalized girl, or even the character

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of the mother my you know she's
dirt poor, but how she fights for

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her daughter in spite of it all, and how she has to take on

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an alcoholic husband who reforms maybe maybe
not, and a community which is totally

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against her. A hostile owner changes
the shape of the story. It puts

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faith in forward motion. What was
it like to build from this point forward?

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Now that now that we've got an
open door for there to be safety,

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how did it grow inside your imagination? The characters began to talk to

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me, and so I knew that
the characters would tell me what to do

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at some point. I knew the
beginning and the end of the story.

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When I began writing the plot,
I knew there was a girl who was

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expelled from school because she kicked the
class bully. I also knew that she

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wins the gold medal in karate and
gets out of prostitution. In between,

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you know were the challenges that she
has to overcome. Her father wants to

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sell her into the cattle fair.
Her mother wants to protect her. The

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roof is leaking at home, there's
no food, and the entire lane is

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full of brockles, and the girl
has to walk past the lane every day

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to be able to go to school. It's like walking through a river of

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crocodile And the way I imagined it
was exactly that that. How would I

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navigate river of crocodiles, you know? And what would they do to me?

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They would snap at me, they
would crawl closer to me, and

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how would I take it? Some
of it is based on my imagination by

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because I try to put myself in
the shoes of each of the characters that

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I write about. The boys who's
the brother of the girl, is kind

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and gentle, and he's willing to
sacrifice his dreams so that he wants to

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be a scientist. But he's willing
to give up going to school and become

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a porter so that his dat sister
can go to school. But on the

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other hand, I also had like
these crime lords, you know, who

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just sit and watch the girls walking
by, chewing some tobacco with gold chains

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around their neck, and I could
actually see them when I was writing.

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And the failed mother who has to
break stones, cut up stones and still

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can't keep her daughter in school and
has to look for food in the trash

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near the railway tracks. And I
could see it all as I was writing,

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and some of it I could see
because I'd actually seen it working in

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my ngo up near the red light
area is near the railway tracks. I

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have seen people look in the trash
for food along with pigs. And I

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have seen the traffickers prey on little
girls. And I had to in my

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own hostel which I started for the
children to be able to study safely.

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I had to make the wall at
the hostel higher because the traffickers were trying

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to jump over the walls to kidnap
the girls. I had to put a

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security guard at the gate. So
a lot of it is based on true

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experiences and a lot of it is
imagination. To go from your eyes to

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the page, to the book to
the reader to the activation around the world.

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What an amazing journey that you have
been on. You've got to come

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back to this show anytime in the
future. The door is always going to

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be open for you. Than so
much do share. I can apply with

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as many people as you can,
because they will find inspiration, hope and

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courage. Oh, I love your
heart. Please come back anytime. The

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door is going to be open for
you. Okay, thank you, thank

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you. I love your program.
Thank you. You be brilliant today