MY ACCOUNT
thousands of fatherless children
“We were in our town when suddenly Boko Haram attacked us at night. … So we started running. My mother held my hand while we were running. My father ran in a different direction. He was intercepted and killed.”
Nancy and her brother Philemon are two of thousands of children left fatherless after brutal attacks from Boko Haram. They are now without a mother as well. Their abusive stepfather murdered their mother and siblings in a fire from which Nancy and Philemon narrowly escaped.
Boko Haram and other extremist groups are known to target men, leaving widows and orphans in Nigeria vulnerable and traumatized. A Commission on International Religious Freedom study interviewed 2,185 survivors of Boko Haram. Of those, at least 1,300 were widowed mothers, and an additional 240 identified themselves as orphaned children of victims.
In addition to murdering countless husbands and fathers, Boko Haram has also abducted thousands of women and girls, who are often subjected to forced marriages and impregnated by terrorists. Even if they are able to someday escape, they may not be welcomed back by their husbands, or are otherwise left to raise their children alone.
In a camp in Nigeria for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), Global Christian Relief met a woman named Gladys, who had been kidnapped and assaulted by terrorists.
Gladys can't speak much – a result of the trauma she endured at the hands of Boko Haram, which left her unable to care for herself or her son Miracle.
Miracle is her fourth child and the only one who survived past infancy. He is now growing up without a father, but the love his mother has for him is truly moving. Despite everything Gladys has been through, and even though she cannot care for her son alone, her love is strong and steadfast.
Every day, Gladys walks her 7-year-old to school, waits for him under a shady tree, and walks him home. Her Christian family in the IDP camp has stepped in to play the roles of provider and father for Gladys and Miracle, truly caring for the widows and orphans who need it most.
James 1:27 says, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”
This Father's Day, remember the widows and orphans in Nigeria, whom our Heavenly Father has never forgotten.
An urgent window to act. They refuse to hide their faith. Let’s make sure they don't face the fire alone.
Millions of Nigerian believers currently are living in displacement camps, driven from their homes by targeted, violent attacks. Yet their joy and faith in Jesus remain unbroken. Make an eternal impact today by delivering urgent emergency aid, spiritual support, and bold advocacy so the Nigerian church can continue to shine in the darkness.
