May 8 2014
We support you, Nigeria: Let´s #BringBackOurGirls
SOS Children´s Villages International staff express their support for Nigeria´s kidnapped girl students and their families. We stand with Nigerians to #BringBackOurGirls.
SOS Children´s Villages International staff, Vienna, Austria. Photo © David Lindbjerg, SOS Children´s Villages
“The recent abduction of girls by militants in Nigeria is abhorrent, and SOS Children’s Villages strongly condemns the act as a violation of human rights.
Children must be allowed to be children, to grow up in a secure environment where they can develop and flourish as individuals. Every child has a fundamental right to education, and the international community must do everything it can to ensure this right is protected.
We urge the abductors to free the girls immediately.
We would like to express our sympathies to the families of these girls, and we support the #bringbackourgirls campaign.”
– SOS Children´s Villages CEO Richard Pichler
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SOS Children´s Villages International staff, Innsbruck, Austria. Photo © SOS Children´s Villages
Please join us in showing – and sharing – your support for the girls of Nigeria, and for the right of every child to education and personal safety.
Background on the kidnappings in Nigeria:
In the middle of the night of 14-15 April 2014 an estimated 276 girls were kidnapped from their school dormitory in the town of Chibok, in Borno State, Nigeria. It was the evening before they were to take a final exam that would have qualified them for advanced education.
The terrorist group Boko Haram, an Islamic Jihadist organisation founded in Nigeria, has claimed responsibility for the kidnappings. Boko Haram opposes the “Westernisation” of Nigerians, and particularly opposes modern education for girls.
Except for several girls who managed to escape the kidnappers, well over 200 girls remain missing.
The staff of the SOS Children´s Villages International office in Vienna, Austria. Photo © David Lindbjerg, SOS Children´s Villages