It’s been six long, agonizing months since 300 young girls were kidnapped from their school in Nigeria by terror group, Boko Hiram. Of the 300 girls, 50 escaped early on, while the other 250 girls have been held hostage by these terrorists whose name means “Western Education is Sinful”, hence their attack on a school teaching “Western education”.
Imagine being their parents and siblings, wondering if their daughters were alive and under the circumstances, okay. Had they been raped? Tortured? Starved? Would they ever return home? If they do come home, will they ever heal from their experience?
There was global outcry and attempts at intervention, but nothing drastic took place to return these precious souls back to their families in their small town of Chibok (near the Cameroon border). Nigerian President, Goodluck Jonathan was heavily criticized for his slow response time to the kidnapping, and for his inability to stop the mass murder of his people over the years.
Nigeria’s government recently announced that they have reached a cease fire agreement with Boko Hiram that also includes the release of the girls.
The prayers of the many hope for the safe return of these precious young ladies. These girls are future wives, mothers, teachers, doctors, scientists, politicians, engineers, designers, artists, writers, c-suite leaders, and entrepreneurs.
No parent should ever have to endure the agony of not knowing the whereabouts and safety of their child. Could you ever imagine not having any contact with your child for 6 months or longer? Even 6 days would feel like 6 weeks. Six hours feels like 6 days, and 6 minutes feels like 6 hours. The emotional roller coaster that these girls and their families are feeling cannot possibly be put into words that would make much sense, because how could any of this make sense to a rational person?
I hope that when they do return home that through the resources and support of local and foreign governments, that these girls and their families are provided with counseling and other services to help them through their healing process.
Right now these girls are in survival mode. They just want to be with their families. But once they return home, their nightmare doesn’t end. The images, smells, taste, sounds, and feeling will be long-lasting. Their lives will never return to the normal they once knew, so they have to learn how to make healthy adjustments. They will need a great deal of help to work through this to reach their own level of normalcy.
To read more about the cease fire agreement, and the parties involved in this negotiation process, please read here.
Return our daughters!
~Natasha
Source:
Reuters Africa. http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFKCN0I61PG20141017
Copyright 2014. Natasha Foreman Bryant. The Paradigm Life. All Rights Reserved. theparadigmlife.com
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