NZ Schools plan White Ribbon Day to demonstrate support for kidnapped Nigerian Girls

Students are coming together to hold a National 'White Ribbon Day' on Wednesday14th May. The event was speared headed by Diocesan School for Girls in the North Island and Columba College in the South Island. Now over 22 schools throughout NZ have registered to participate by wearing white ribbons to demonstrate their support and outrage over the kidnapping of 250+ Nigerian school girls by extremists recently.

“These girls were at school when the terrorist group lied to them and told them they had to move offsite to sit their exams,” said Juliette Danesh-Meyer who has organized the event in Auckland. “These girls are just like us here in NZ- wanting to become educated so that they can make a contribution to the world. It is hard to believe that they are denied such a basic human right as education.”

“Every life has dignity and can never be "property” said Columba College Student, Caitlin Addison who has organised event in Dunedin.

White Ribbon Foundation has generously provided the ribbons to support this event and has helped distribute them throughout NZ.

White Ribbon is really pleased to see that New Zealand students recognise that this is a gendered issue and want to help these young women,” says White Ribbon Ambassador David White. “This horrific incident in Nigerian is also an opportunity to spark a debate about the manner in which men’s violence against women is perpetrated and accepted in our own country.”

“We are amazed how quickly schools throughout NZ have responded to support this cause”, said Juliette. “We want to show the Nigerian government that the whole world is watching and that the world cares about these school girls. We want to show our support for these girls and their families”

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