They have become an emblem of resistance – twenty-one girls who escaped when Boko Haram abducted hundreds of schoolgirls from Chibok last April are back in class at the American University of Nigeria in the north-eastern Adamawa State.
Among their number, is a teenage girl who spoke to CNN correspondent Nima Elbagir in Chibok in the aftermath of the kidnapping. She told CNN at the time that she wasn’t sure she would ever finish her education. Today she is dreaming of a better life, hoping to become a teacher herself so that she may help other young girls in her embattled community to learn.
Video link: http://cnn.it/19hvOsD
“My people need my support … and me going to school will make that change,” she told Elbagir.
The young students are enrolled on scholarships at the university, something which was organised by the school’s vice-chancellor Dr. Margee Ensign, who – with the permission of their parents – travelled with her security director to the outskirts of Chibok to collect the girls, in spite of the danger.
The decision of these girls to continue in their schooling puts them and their families puts them once again in the firing line – the name of the Islamist group Boko Haram literally translates as ‘Western education is forbidden’ – but they remain defiant, brave and determined.
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