Jeanne Celestine Lakin was orphaned by the genocide against the Tutsis, which claimed most of her family members. Nearly four years later, at age fourteen, she immigrated to the United States, learned English, and earned two degrees from Eastern Washington University. She now works as an academic adviser, and she and her husband Paul founded the charity One Million Orphans . Refusing to be silenced by the darkness that isolated her, she advocates for the disenfranchised and voiceless children of the world.
Co-author Paul Lakin was born in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho and raised in the Northwest. He graduated from Eastern Washington University and is director at One Million Orphans. He lives in Houston, Texas with his wife and their son, Samuel "Kaze".