The 82 Chibok girls rescued from the clutches of Boko Haram by the Nigerian government have arrived at the women affairs and social development centre to start yet another journey. One that will help them recover from traumatic experiences in captivity.
The women affairs ministry will ensure that they received psycho social therapy which will last for months before being put back in school.
Besides that, the girls will be introduced to some basic teachings, similar to those in the schools they will be joining. The idea is to refocus them back in to classroom.
“For the the remedial aspect, to bring them refresher courses, to bring them where they were before they left or even more, then the vocational training, every girl is learning true skills, most of them have chosen to learn sewing and catering so that is what all of them are doing and ICT we made it compulsory for them,” said Aisha Alhassan, Minister of Women Affairs, Nigeria.
The girls aged between 16 and 18 are part of the 276 girls abducted by Boko Haram militants in April 2014 in north eastern Nigeria. Dozens of them escaped in the first night of abuction and 106 of them have since been freed leaving more than 100 unaccounted for. But some of them reportedly have refused to be released.
For the next 4 months, the women affairs ministry will be home for the 82 girls, a team of psychologists will help to heal the mental wounds they’ve suffered in past three years during Boko-Haram captivity. After which, they will be sent out to various schools across Nigeria to continue with studies. But none of those schools include Chibok girl school from where they were abducted three years ago.
“All of them will go back to school together because if we keep them beyond September, it means they will waste another school year, we don’t want that to happen, so all of them will go back together, these ones are staying for 9 months, the first 24 between January and September because by the time we were sure they were ready to go to school, they school year had already gone very far,” said Aisha Alhassan, Minister of Women Affairs, Nigeria.
The batch of 82 girls was freed in exchange for Boko Haram prisoners held in government prison. The government has promised more releases even as Boko Haram says there will be no more negotiations for the release of the remaining girls.
