An African tale: a small gift from Connecticut not only changed a young woman's life, it also shows how Americans can make a real difference overseas.

• Author: Kristof, Nicholas D.
• Position: OPINION - Beatrice Biira

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This year's college graduates owe their success to many factors. But one of the most remarkable of the new graduates, Beatrice Biira, 23, credits something utterly improbable: a goat.

"I am one of the luckiest girls in the world," Biira declared this spring after graduating from Connecticut Cortege in New London.

Biira's story begins in Uganda, where she was born and raised. Her parents couldn't afford to send her to school, so she stayed home to help with the chores. She was on track to become one more illiterate African woman.

Meanwhile, the children of the Niantic Community Church in Connecticut decided to buy goats for African villagers through Heifer International, an aid group based in Arkansas. A dairy goat in Heifer's online gift catalogue costs $120.

One of the goats went to Biira's parents and soon produced twins. The children drank the milk and sold the surplus.

With that money, Biira's parents could finally afford to send her to school.. She was much older than the other first-graders, but overjoyed to be there.

Page McBrier, an American who visited the school., was so impressed that she wrote a children's book, Beatrice's Goat, which became a bestseller. But now there's a reason for a remarkable sequel.

Biira did so well in school. that she won scholarships not only to Uganda's best girls' high school, but also to a prep school, in Massachusetts and then Connecticut College.

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