Rally...

Today, for the first time in my life, I added my voice (and a sign) to bolster a cause. That cause being the safe return of 276 Nigerian girls who, exactly one month ago today, were kidnapped from their secondary school in Chibok, Nigeria. The militant group, Boko Haram, that took the girls is known for its violence and anti-Western ideology. That is, they have gone to great lengths to attack Christians, Muslims as well as bomb churches, mosques and schools.

A friend of ours from the Postgraduate Students' Association, Jumoke, who is from Nigeria, along with others here in Wellington recently drafted a letter and sent it to New Zealand Prime Minister, John Key, asking him to condemn this deplorable act (which he did). Today the group organized a rally to ask the New Zealand government to contribute some of its resources to the search for and safe return of the girls.

We met up at Wellington Civic Square where several reps from the various news channels were there to film the group and interview the organizers. Before we started our walk towards Parliament the Wellington mayor, Celia Wade-Brown, said a few words to emphasize her support of every effort to resolve this issue. I thought one of her points was particularly poignant; that is, many students dread taking exams but no student should have to live in fear that she will be attacked or kidnapped because she is pursuing education. After a few safety instructions about not walking on the street we set off towards Parliament 100+ strong. We were a sight to be seen and had many pedestrians doing double takes as we walked by on the side walk. 

Upon arrival at Parliament several diplomats and government officials lent their support to the cause. Soon we heard what sounded like a large group of students chanting, "These are our sisters, bring back our girls!". Within minutes 276 girls from several of the Wellington girls high schools arrived at the Parliament grounds to join the rally. It was simply brilliant to see such a large number of young women standing up for other young women half way around the world.

As people started to disperse I didn't really want to leave but wasn't sure what to do. In the end I was glad I stuck around because a group from Unicef New Zealand came by and wanted to take a photo of me holding my sign, "GIRLS DESERVE BETTER". They also asked for a statement which was considerably harder to formulate than I would have guessed. I just found out that I made their Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/media/set/set=a.10152462786643324.1073741843.37547788323&type=1) and was only partially misquoted. :) I'm not surprised. The quote they included with my photo read, "The onus is on us to step in". Yeah, I would say that could be taken a variety of ways. Sigh. Regardless I was happy to lend my support as a woman and a student.What I actually said was that "I'm incredulous that human rights violations like these continue to happen all over the world especially against women and children. It is deplorable that individuals think these things are justifiable". I then went on to say that many "groups around the world are disadvantaged and abused and consequently need advocacy. Considering this, countries with a variety of resources such as the US and New Zealand are poised to help and support such efforts. The onus is on us to give that help to those who need it".  #BringBackOurGirls