Hundreds of Nigerian girls kidnapped and how you can help #BringBackOurGirls

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While you were running to the store to get a shower rod because of Mimi Faust or maybe being outraged by Donald Sterling’s comments and his ‘southern white man syndrome’, hundreds of Nigerian girls were kidnapped and sold.

Nigerian militant group Boko Haram (which translates to “western education forbidden”) abducted 200 girls from a school in the town of Chibok in Nigeria. Now the girls have been taken as brides by militants.

The Washington Post reports that although not fully confirmed, the 200 or more girls were sold for merely $12.

On April 14, The Nigerian militant group stormed a dormitory in Chibok at night, captured hundreds of girls, and disappeared back into the night. Since, the bungled search for them has lurched from one mistake to the next.

There have been various reports on where the girls have been taken, all in all, leaving very frustrated and worried parents.

Some relatives have launched their own search, riding motorcycles deep into the surrounding forests in search of their girls. “My wife keeps asking me, why isn’t the government deploying every means to find our children,” relative Dawah said.

“All we want from the government is to help us bring our children back,” one father named Pogu Yaga, wept.

It is being reported that protesters are calling for a 1 million woman march in support to help find the girls. There is also a social media campaign hashtag #bringbackourgirls that is bringing more light to the scary situation.

We cannot stop terrorism overnight,” said former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who plans to visit Nigeria. “But we can make sure that its perpetrators are aware that murdering and abducting school children is a heinous crime that the international authorities are determined to punish.”

Nothing, however, has brought back the girls, now missing for 16 days.

As an activist, I couldn’t help but to be outraged and wondered how can I help bring more awareness and light to the situation. Besides keeping the #bringbackourgirls hashtag going, a petition was created calling for the UN to work with the Nigerian government to bring back the girls kidnapped by Boko Haram.

Western media (our media) has done a poor job reporting on this horrible ordeal. Unheard Voices will make it our mission to continue to cover this story as more unfolds. Situations like this clearly states that our society’s minds need to be retrained and re-focused on things that matter.  We are so clouded on unnecessary things like reality television shows, when across the world young girls are fighting just to live a life of normalcy. I mean, we are fighting against human trafficking in our own country.

I hope and pray for the safe return of those girls. One can only imagine how scared and frightened each of them.

Note: The #BringOurGirlsBack petition has been taken down.