Every Child Safe in School

Fifteen-year-old Leah Sharibu was one of 110 girls abducted from their school in Dapchi, Nigeria by Boko Haram in February.

The next month, following negotiations by the government, the girls were put into trucks to go home. But as they were about to leave, the kidnappers told Leah – the only Christian – that she must first convert. Leah refused. In a moment of extraordinary courage she decided that her faith was worth more than her freedom – despite her friends begging her to pretend to convert. She was forced to get out of the truck and watch her classmates drive to safety.

Making sure Leah’s story isn’t repeated

As we go to print Leah is still in captivity, still refusing to give up her faith, still standing firm for what she believes… despite a recent and direct threat to her life. In August, a tape was released in which she implores the public to stand with her and her family, to get her released:

“I am calling on the government and people of goodwill to…get me out of this serious situation…I am begging you to treat me with compassion.”

Leah and her classmates were abducted by Boko Haram factions, but such abductions aren’t only limited to schoolgirls. Boko Haram is also known to abduct boys, who are then either forced to become child soldiers or murdered.

We launched our Faith and a Future campaign because we believe that no child should miss out on an education– their very future – because of their faith. Thousands of you joined our campaign to take action for schoolchildren in Pakistan. Yet this is a truly global issue, so the next focus for our campaign is Nigeria. As part of the campaign we’ve conducted a unique piece of research on this under-reported issue. While the international community is working towards eliminating barriers to education such as poverty, gender- based discrimination, and conflict, discrimination on the basis of a child’s religion or belief has received insufficient attention.

Education curtailed

Our research found that, as well as the threat of abduction from terrorists, underage Christian schoolgirls in shari’a states are regularly at risk of abduction from the street by local men, forcibly converted and obliged to marry. Even when the parents discover where their daughter is being held, they are threatened, and told that she willingly converted and married. Meanwhile, local law enforcement generally turns a blind eye for fear of inciting social unrest.

Earlier this year we hosted Reverend Yunusa Nmadu, CEO of CSW Nigeria, for two intensive weeks of lobbying on issues including schoolgirl abductions. We held 13 meetings with MPs and peers, with Foreign Office staff working on Nigeria, and with Lord Ahmad, the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy on Freedom of Religion or Belief.

“As a result, more than ten written parliamentary questions were asked; there was a significant debate in the House of Lords; Caroline Spelman MP published an article about child abductions to mark Leah’s birthday; and there were numerous mentions of the situation in Nigeria during a debate in the House of Commons on the persecution of Christians.”

A way forward

“This is encouraging; but there must be no let up in pressure until Boko Haram releases every single child they have abducted. Together we want to tackle this problem at the root, so we don’t see a repeat of stories like Leah’s.

Nigeria is one of many countries, including the UK, to have endorsed the Safe Schools Declaration – a commitment to support schools during the kind of armed conflict that Nigeria is currently experiencing. Leah’s plight is directly related to conflict: her abductors are a faction of the terrorist group Boko Haram which forbids education that is not connected with Islam, and has destroyed at least 1,400 schools, killing over 2,000 teachers.