As a parent, you do everything possible to keep your children healthy, safe, and happy. Sometimes it can be challenging! Imagine trying to raise a child in northern Nigeria where poverty and Muslim extremism are a part of everyday life.
Attacks from Boko Haram, a violent Islamic terrorist group, have killed 17,000 people, left 2 million homeless, and forced over a million children out of school. In this pivotal time in Nigeria’s history, Call of Hope's Frontline Workers are responding to the terror of Boko Haram with the love of Jesus!
Boko Haram Targets Schools
Nigeria's militant Islamist group Boko Haram is fighting to overthrow the government and create an Islamic state through a wave of bombings, assassinations and abductions.
Boko Haram targets marketplaces, churches, and even schools. Due to this ongoing threat; more than a million children have been unable to attend school and continue their education. As a result, many of northern Nigeria’s children are illiterate!
In villages where churches have been destroyed and Bibles have been burned to ashes; Call of Hope is responding to help children and their families with emergency supplies and so much more!
Portions of burnt Bibles left behind after a Book-Haram terror attack on a school in Northern Nigeria.
Education Continues Through Call of Hope
Despite Boko Haram’s efforts to destroy the future of Nigeria’s children, Call of Hope is providing Bibles and hymnals for children, as well as establishing schools with teachers and appropriate learning materials, so that children are able to continue their education.
In these schools, Muslim and Christian children alike are learning to read their first sentences using Bible stories! This show of love and concern during a time of heartbreak and hurt has many Muslim’s looking for hope, and children and their parents are asking questions! That is why Frontline Workers also give out evangelistic booklets written to specifically address questions Muslims have about Jesus Christ and Christianity.
Frontline Workers in Nigeria are able to replace burnt Children's Bibles and evangelistic school booklets used to teach students.
Lives Are Being Changed
The children who attend these schools are often traumatized. They have seen parents and friends killed by Boko Haram; their villages and possessions have been destroyed; many have fled to makeshift refugee camps where survival is a daily struggle.
At first, the children attending the Call of Hope schools in Nigeria come filled with bitterness and hatred. When our frontline worker asked them “What do you want to be when you grow up?” many of them said, “We want to become soldiers, because we want to take vengeance for the murder of our parents.”
Over time, however, as the children learn from the Bible and are healed by God's love, they learn to forgive and love their enemies despite all of the terrible things that have happened.
The Work Has Just Begun
Call of Hope schools in Nigeria are proving to be an effective way to reach out to Muslims with the love of God while strengthening our Christian brothers and sisters. But the work is only beginning. Currently, there are children who have been out of school for nearly 5 years, a situation that we would all like to change. To make this a reality, Frontline Workers are asking for us to provide teaching materials, Bibles, and evangelistic literature. For as little as $10 you can play a big part in shaping the immediate, and eternal future of an entire generation of precious Nigerian children who have suffered so much.
