'Where is he going to see himself?' - Book highlights representation to children of color

A woman in Flatbush has dedicated her life to helping people and inspiring youth in communities of color. Now, she’s using her talents to reach young children.

News 12 Staff

Jun 1, 2020, 8:36 PM

Updated 1,694 days ago

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A woman in Flatbush has dedicated her life to helping people and inspiring youth in communities of color. Now, she’s using her talents to reach young children. 
Ijeoma Ntukogu is a pediatric practitioner who now lives in Texas but returned to Brooklyn to help out during the coronavirus pandemic. 
Ntukogu is also the author of the children’s book "Nursery Rhymes and Rhythms." She says she created the book so that her young nephew could see characters that looked like him. 
 "Where are we? Where is he, actually? Where is he going to see himself?” said Ntukogu. 
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"I have a lot of nurses, nurse practitioner friends who were on the front line. Hearing their stories, I felt like I was supposed to be here,” said Ntukogu. 
She says the coronavirus pandemic has significantly affected people of color.  "These communities, a lot of the people are misinformed, undereducated, and they don't have resources,” said Ntukogu. 
She says it is something she is working on changing. She also says it’s important for young children of color to see people like them succeeding and accomplishing great things so that they can strive to be the best they can be.