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Celebrities Show Support For #BringBackOurGirls

Caroline Deisley |
May 8, 2014 | 11:54 p.m. PDT

Contributor

FLOTUS is part of the movement to raise awareness (Twitter/@Independent).
FLOTUS is part of the movement to raise awareness (Twitter/@Independent).
Celebrities are yet again using their star status for good as they are joining together on social media to stand up against the abduction of more than 300 Nigerian schoolchildren who were captured in mid-April. 

The First Lady Michelle Obama was just one of many prominent females who posted pictures with the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls to raise awareness for the missing girls from the town of Chibok.

Philantrhopist and A-List actress Angelina Jolie joined celebrities like Reese Witherspoon, Whoopi Goldberg, Amy Poehler, Kerry Washington, Jessica Biel, Ellen Degeneres, Alicia Keys and Kim Kardashian as they all took over social media sites like Twitter and Instagram with inspiring messages demanding an end to this terror.

The schoolgirls were abducted by the radical group Boko Haram on April 14th according to a video released by leader Abubaker Shekau who threatened to sell the girls, inspiring this international campaign in protest of the Nigerian government and its president Goodluck Jonathan’s inability to act on the manner. 

The campaign #BringBackOurGirls sparked an international uproar as the Nigerian government continues to struggle to find the missing schoolgirls as families now fear the girls will be sold as brides or unfortunately, as slaves. 

The United States demonstrated its support by sending a team of military, law enforcement and hostage negotiation experts in search of the kidnapped girls.

While the social media campaign has done wonders to spread awareness regarding the rescue efforts, supporters can now donate to the Malala Fund which was started by Malala Yousafzai on Thursday. The fund will donate 100 percent of its funds to local Nigerian organizations that educated and promote advocacy for girls. 

Other non-profit organizations like UNICEF are encouraging supporters to continue using the hashtag to gain traction but are also directing attention to their End Trafficking project in order to help stop human trafficking for good. 

Now more than a million tweets have been sent using #BringBackOurGirls and with the support from celebrities like Kim Kardashian who have more than 20 million followers hopefully that number will continue to skyrocket as awareness continues to spread as the world demands that we #BringBackOurGirls. 

Reach Contributor Caroline Deisley here.



 

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Craig Gillespie directed this true story about "the most daring rescue mission in the history of the U.S. Coast Guard.”

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