WASHINGTON — Lily had sworn never to go
back to school. After being kidnapped from
her high school in Chibok, Nigeria, by armed
group Boko Haram, the 18-year-old planned to
leave education behind and do what her
family had been doing for generations —
farming.
School was not safe any more.
Boko Haram kidnapped Lily and 275 other
schoolgirls one night in April 2014. In a
remote town in northeastern Nigeria, the
radical fighters grabbed Lily and the others as
they slept inside the local high school’s
dormitory. They stuffed them into trucks and
drove off into the night with a convoy of
squealing, terrified high school students.
Lily said her heart was pounding, and she
closed her eyes and prayed. Hours after her
capture, she found the courage to jump out of
the moving truck; a friend followed her. She
ran through the bushes in the middle of the
night, and made her way back home.
After that, she resolved never to return to
school.
The mass kidnapping of almost 300 Nigerian
girls captured the world’s attention. Boko
Haram had rampaged across northeastern
Nigeria for five years, but the Chibok
kidnapping gained the group worldwide
infamy and revulsion. Boko Haram, a phrase
that loosely translates as “Western education
is forbidden,” aims to a government rule by an
extreme interpretation of Shariah law. Since
2009, the group has spilled blood across the
region, bombing, looting and kidnapping.
Activists in Nigeria birthed the Bring Back Our
Girls campaign, demanding the Nigerian
government to find the schoolgirls who were
still missing. Only 57 of the girls had escaped,
and they did so with no help from the
Nigerian government.
The likes of First Lady Michelle Obama,
celebrity TV personality Ellen DeGeneres, and
Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafzai
carried signs marked #BringBackOurGirls.
Meanwhile, Emmanuel Ogebe, a U.S.-based
Nigerian human rights lawyer collaborated
with a couple in Nigeria to help bring some
Chibok schoolgirls who had escaped from
Boko Haram to the United States.
“Schooling is an incredibly high-risk activity in
northern Nigeria,” Ogebe said, explaining that
girls freed from Boko Haram captivity could
face security risks, survivors’ guilt and
discrimination from their community.
“Most had been stigmatized as a ‘Boko
Haram’ wife, which further traumatized them,”
Ogebe said.
Lily was made fun of after her escape; leaving
Nigeria offered her a chance to change the
course of her life.
Lily and nine other girls arrived in the U.S.
last year, between July and December.
The three Nigerian activists, who later formed
Education Must Continue Initiative, helped
them obtain U.S. visas so they could attend
reputable private schools that offered
scholarships for them. Initially they attended
two different schools, with some of the girls
on the West Coast, but now all are attending
the same school in Virginia.
Lily was back in school.
“I know I said I would never go to school
again but things have changed,” Lily said with
a smile. “I am in America!”
The girls recently went back to class after a
summer break that included trips to the White
House, museum and a national tour with a
church choir. Host families housed the girls
during the summer vacation.
Murna, 19, discovered she has motion
sickness and cannot sit in a car for long. Lily
has not acquired a taste for American food.
Sometimes, Lily’s mind wanders to Nigeria, to
Chibok, to Boko Haram, to her best friend
Dorcas, who was abducted with her and is
presumably still in the clutches of Boko
Haram members. Dorcas and Lily grew up
together as neighbors.
“She is still inside Sambisa,” Lily says. “I miss
her so much. She is a very good person.”
Sambisa Forest, a 40,000 square-mile stretch
of nature reserve in northeastern Nigeria, is
believed to be Boko Haram’ main hide out .
Many believe it’s where the 219 Chibok
schoolgirls still missing are being held. More
than 700 captives have been freed from Boko
Haram, according to the Nigerian military.
Amnesty International estimates that Boko
Haram has abducted more than 2,000 people,
mostly women.
The group has formed an official alliance with
the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL,
also known as ISIS), calling itself the Islamic
State West African province.
Murna, 17, says she used to have nightmares
about Boko Haram.
“I had a dream that Boko Haram came to
America on a plane and entered into the
house to kidnap us and take us back to
Nigeria,” she said. Murna, a tall and animated
teenager, said she had several similar
nightmares and is only recently beginning to
cope with the trauma she endured.
Murna often spends her time braiding
extensions into her hair. Lily and Lovely, 18,
like to sit together and watch Nigerian movies
on the iPads they borrowed from their school.
They are acquiring new skills: learning to play
violin, becoming tech-savvy and logging into
Skype to video chat with friends, improving
their use of American English.
“These young ladies immediately impress with
their effervescent personalities and sweet
dispositions. After simply giving them a ride
in the car, they thanked me,” says Deanna
Gelak, an education specialist who is hosting
one of the girls. Gelak describes them as
young ladies with a “special grace, good
nature and wit.”
Lily, Lovely and Murna do not yet know what
the future holds for them. They think often
about their friends and families they left
behind in Nigeria, but are uncertain of
returning to live in their home country.
Lily watches a video message from her
parents, sent to her via Facebook. She listens
to her mother pray for her in her native Kibaku
language. The sight of her elderly, white-
haired father makes her cry. She turns her
head away and sniffles. When asked what her
mother said in the video, Lily says, “She told
me that Boko Haram came to attack Chibok
again but that I should not worry. They are
fine.”
Murna prays every day for the safety of her
father who is a police officer in northeastern
Nigeria. Lovely’s father was recently killed by
Boko Haram. She was not able to attend his
funeral.
The girls sometimes feel they are too distant
from their loved ones. But, they are carving
new relationships in the United States.
Inspired by Ogebe, the Nigerian lawyer who
helped bring them to the United States, Lily
and Lovely have decided to become lawyers.
Murna wants to be the first medical doctor in
her family. They all hope for a Nigeria free
from Boko Haram, where all girls will feel safe
enough to go to school. http://www.america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/8/30/nigerias-chibok-girls-find-new-start-in-us.html

Hmmmm

What about the other ones still being held?