Easterns Blog

ISIS has been seen frequently in the news, but there is a new terror group on the rise called Boko Haram. This is the group responsible for kidnapping a large number of students in Nigeria.

The images of hundreds of Nigerian schoolgirls taken by Boko Haram last April are hard to erase from our minds. The girls were violently kidnapped while sleeping at their boarding school in the middle of the night. One potential reason behind this kidnapping could be the fact that the Boko Haram group is against Western education.

Many of you may remember the global hashtag #BringBackOurGirls that trended worldwide on social media. The popularity of the story and hashtag grew so large that it reached the White House. Time has quickly went by as it has been a year and a half since the tragic incident occurred. To date, 219 girls from a town in Nigeria called Chibok still remain captive. However, 57 girls have managed to escape.

Emmanuel Ogebe, a Human rights lawyer of Northern Virginia has helped bring over a dozen girls here to the United States. The most recent girl just arrived here last month.

?Being here reduces the trauma of living in the shadows of the terrorists and the terror threat,? said Ogebe.

Ogebe found himself easy to relate to the girls because he was also a political prisoner in Nigeria. He originally came to the U.S. are a two month period of being tortured and interrogated.

?We are talking about just abduction off of the street ? taken away ? no one knows where you are,? he said.

Now, Ogebe has made the choice to dedicate his life to helping other victims of similar traumatic experiences, like Saalome, who spoke to us about the night she was taken.

?They said that we should say our last prayer. That they?re going to kill all of us,? she said.

Easterns Automotive Group partnered with Fox 5 to help Ogebe out with such a great cause. Easterns donated twelve complete sets of luggage for each of the girls that were rescued by Ogebe. The girls had their belongings still in bags from their trip from Nigeria. It is great to know that the generous folks from Easterns were able to help out and bring a smile to these young girls faces.

Easterns Automotive Group has partnered with FOX 5 DC to help honor people in the DC, Maryland, and Virginia community who go above and beyond the call. If you know someone worthy if being recognized, Click here to nominate them – http://www.fox5dc.com/pay-it-forward

Link to original story: http://www.fox5dc.com/news/pay-it-forward/56453781-story