New Delhi, Nov 6 (UNI) Children’s literature specialist and acclaimed author Manorama Jafa has been conferred Order of the Rising Sun, the highest civilian award by Imperial Majesty of Japan for her distinguished achievements. Embassy of Japan here through a letter by Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida congratulated Ms Jafa on her selection for the honour. Ms Jafa has joined the league of chosen few Indians, including former Prime Minister and economist Dr Manmohan Singh, Dr Venkataraman Krishnamurthy, a Cambridge scientist, former Union Minister N K Singh and famous as Metro Man E Sreedaran, who had been awarded Order of the Rising Sun. More than an author of children’s books, Ms Jafa is an academician and a practitioner on the science and art of children’s literature. For over four decades, she carved a trajectory on promoting creative writing for children, using children’s literature for tools to counter trauma as during Tsunami. She is also credited for starting Association of Writers and Illustrators for Children in 1976. Ms Jafa initiated an entire programme on developing creative alphabet books in almost 8-9 Indian languages, an ambitious projected which was funded by Japan. She developed conceptual books with minimal text and large attractive illustrations in Dari and Pashton, and went to distribute the books investing her pension in Afghanistan. The author revived the Indian board of Books for Young Children (IBBY) by creating the first World Congress on Peace through Children’s books where she invited Empress Michiko to read the keynote paper. Ms Jafa has trained large number of writers and provided guidance to artistes and publishers to produce innovative and creative children’s literature in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and several other countries through workshops, academic papers, seminars and conferences. UNI MK RSA 1049