{UAH} #GivingWithoutGuilt: Why Adicho girls matter - Comment - www.theeastafrican.co.ke
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#GivingWithoutGuilt: Why Adicho girls matter - Comment
In Summary
If they are freed, they will be survivors, Malala-type girls who overcame evil extremists. Some could move on to become influential people.
The United Nations on Wednesday announced that the Safe Schools Initiative in Nigeria has attracted "significant" funding.
Yes, you guessed right: The Safe Schools Initiative in Nigeria is to ensure that schools, especially those in the north of the country, are protected from attack by the likes of Boko Haram.
After Boko Haram terrorists abducted about 270 schoolgirls from Chibok in north-eastern Nigeria's Borno State on the night of April 14, world opinion has been aroused and international condemnation and weekend protests in many world capitals, have become regular affairs.
The initiative bagged more than $23 million. When did you last hear of an African crisis attracting that much money? When thousands are threatened with famine in Somalia or South Sudan, you will be lucky to get $6 million in the first month.
Why? To begin with, we all like to feel that we are contributing our money to a hopeful cause. Thus 800,000 Somalis faced with starvation is almost a hopeless situation. You feel you cannot save them all… they are too many.
It is easier to let someone else choose who among them shall live and who shall die.
On the other hand, the children of the rich and poor may go to very different schools, but school safety is something all their parents understand.
That is why the world can't have enough of that chubby-cheeked and brave Pakistani schoolgirl and education activist Malala Yousafzai. At 11 she was writing a blog about life under the Taliban and why girls must have education — contrary to Taliban doctrine.
A Taliban shot her in the head, she survived, and has flourished under our eyes. That is a great story of triumph. We love it.
Those Adicho girls, we feel like we know them.
There is a popular hashtag for them on Twitter, #BringBackOurGirls. Very many famous people in the world have been agitating for their release.
If they are freed, they will be survivors, Malala-type girls who overcame evil extremists. Some could move on to become influential people.
Hungry Somalis and South Sudanese? That is throwing away good money. We don't know them by name, and if they survived they are unlikely to become rocket scientists.
One of my good friends in Uganda is a priest. He has an excellent record of raising money in the West for his projects in Uganda. He doesn't do children with flies around their mouths or barefoot.
He does averagely well-fed, oiled faces shining in the sun, with a half-finished school for which he is seeking donations in the background. The cheques are written quickly.
He explained: "Never do hopelessness or despair. Don't appeal to rich people's sense of guilt or shame. That will only take you so far," he said. "Do promise, possibilities. Tell people with fat cheque books that they have a chance to be part of a successful story."
True. Sadly, though, Africa's suffering people rarely choose their tragedies. Tragedies find them, and they can't run away from them fast enough.
Charles Onyango-Obbo is is the editor of Mail & Guardian Africa (mgafrica.com). Twitter:cobbo3
#GivingWithoutGuilt: Why Adicho girls matter - Commen
http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/-GivingWithoutGuilt--Why-Adicho-girls-matter/-/434750/2340024/-/o5ngoh/-/index.html
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