Violence Against Women
WOMEN from South Africa's ruling African National Congress outlined actions to mobilise civil society and government organisations to explore ways of ensuring the release of the schoolgirls Boko Haram members kidnapped in Chibok, Borno State recently.
A meeting has been planned for Johannesburg on Friday to kickstart the campaign.
ANC Women's League (ANCWL) President, Angie Motshekga, confirmed the meeting, which would provide a platform for all interested parties and women's NGO's to discuss South Africans can undertake to bring back the kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls.
"The kidnapping of these girls is a travesty of human rights and justice and as women of the African continent we need to come together and combine our efforts until these girls are home in the arms of their parents and loved ones," she said.
Following the meeting the ANCWL will also be sending a delegation of South African women to Nigeria to meet with women's organizations in that country and assist the situation in whatever way they can.
"We are hoping that if we put our heads together as women we can come up with solutions or ways to assist Nigerian women in their efforts. These are our daughters and we need to come together in times like these," said Motshekga.
The ANCWL has meanwhile called on all its structures throughout the country to join women in their Thursday women's prayer meetings and pray for the girls.
"We are pleased as the Women's League that the girls are still alive based on the video clip released by Boko Haram. They do not leave our thoughts or prayers," concluded Motshekga.
Angie Motshekga, ANC Women's League chairwoman