Leah was taken hostage in Dapchi, Yobe State along with 109 other girls, on 19 February 2018, aged fourteen at the time. Some were shockingly murdered, and the rest returned to their families after about a month. All, that is, except the Christian holdout Leah, whose mother achingly longs for the moment of their reunion. Nigerian Government negotiations with the terrorists strangely secured the freedom of all the girls except for Leah Sharibu, who had refused to convert to Islam.
Leah is just one of thousands of children and women who have been abducted, killed, injured and suffered from sexual attacks due to increasing violence across the country. Nigeria records more than 1000 kidnapping incidents per year, and there are undoubtedly many that go unreported.
PSJ UK joined with ICON (The International Committee on Nigeria), PSJ Nigeria and The LEAH Foundation to commemorate the ‘Unhappy anniversary’ by jointly hosting a global online event tagged ‘3 Hours for 3 Years’. Ably hosted by Priscilla Ozodo-Acevedo, each of the 3 hours featured influential voices giving short exhortations, prayers and creative arts spearheaded by three different regions of the world: 1) The U.S. for North America; 2) The U.K. for Europe and 3) Nigeria for Africa.
You can re-watch the commemoration event below:
