One Man Continues to Keep Hope Alive, One Year After Nigerian Girls Were Abducted 

Charles Alasholuyi

Charles Alasholuyi

If you cared deeply about something, would you protest? Make a sign? Join a demonstration? How long could you keep going for, in the face of indifference and inaction?

When more than 200 Nigerian girls were kidnapped from their school a year ago by Boko Haram militants, millions of people around the world joined a social media campaign to plead for their safe return.

Charles Alasholuyi was one of those people — from celebrities to world leaders — voicing their anger via #BringBackOurGirls, one of the top Twitter hashtags of 2014, used in more than four million tweets.

But as weeks turned into months, there was still no sign of the missing girls. The spotlight on the campaign faded. People stopped tweeting. They stopped marching. They stopped pleading with the Nigerian government to do more to rescue the young students.

It seemed everyone had given up hope that the girls would come back. Many questioned whether they were even still alive. Everyone, that is, except Alasholuyi.

The marketing professional and father-of-three has taken time nearly every single day since the girls went missing to hold up a sign featuring the #BringBackOurGirls hashtag, have his colleague take his photo with it, and post it on CNN iReport.

Alasholuyi, a believer in the saying that “an injury done to one, is an injury done to all,” says he does this to help give the families of the girls a voice.

Read the full story at cnn.com

Democracy needs journalism it can trust.

This election season, the stakes are higher than usual — and so is the pressure on newsrooms to soften their coverage, stay quiet, or just disappear. Independent reporting, the kind that answers to readers instead of advertisers or political pressure, matters more in a moment like this, not less.

For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed independent and reader-funded. We have no corporate owner and no shareholders telling us what to cover or how to cover it. That independence is also our biggest vulnerability: nothing protects it except readers choosing to fund it directly.

Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under in a moment like this, it's rarely the independent, reader-funded ones that get to stick around.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Back to top