Nigeria: Families of missing Chibok schoolgirls to receive trauma counselling

Victims of Boko Haram's reign of terror in northern Nigeria will be supported by a new trauma centre opened by persecution charity Open Doors.

Parents of the Chibok girls weep during their meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa in Abuja, Nigeria, January 14, 2016.Reuters

The charity has been supporting the parents of more than 200 Christian girls who were abducted by Boko Haram in April 2014 with food, medical care and trauma counselling.

This work will now be extended through a new trauma centre, which will be the first of its kind in northern Nigeria.

Up to 30 people suffering from trauma will live at the centre at at time, usually for around six weeks, where they will receive professional help and support.

Professionals will also equip church leaders in how best to support church members who are struggling.

The building of the trauma centre follows a trip to northern Nigeria by Open Doors UK and Ireland president Eddie Lyle.

Along with a team, he delivered messages of support from Christians around the world to parents of the missing Chibok girls.

"Meeting four of the fathers of the Chibok girls encapsulated for me the agony of this tragic incident. Jonah, one of the fathers, asked me how he can stop his wife from screaming at night because of the sense of loss. She's missing her daughter and doesn't know how to live life again. 'What would Jesus do Brother Eddie?' he asked. There are no easy answers to that most searching question, beyond the fact that God grieves with his suffering family," Lyle said.

"We made a solemn pledge to speak for these dignified but vulnerable people. I know God does answer prayer and I pray this cruel injustice will soon be righted."

Pastor Isaac (name has been changed) is one Nigerian church leader who could benefit from training at the new centre.

On Christmas Day last year, he found out that he was on a list of people to be targeted by Boko Haram. A few days later, militants went house-to-house killing people in his village, but miraculously, he and his family were spared.

The next week, not one of his 500-member church arrived for Sunday worship.

"As a shepherd, as a pastor, we don't take pleasure in burying our members. I've seen orphans in the church and widows in the church. Whenever we see them, we feel bad, because we need to take care of them and we have no resources," pastor Isaac said.

"Persecution will never separate us from the love of God. We have made up our mind to serve God, and nothing will stop us. We have made up our mind to die for Jesus."

"No Bible college could ever prepare someone to face a situation like this," Lyle said.

"My hope and prayer is that this new centre will help Isaac and others like him to acquire the skills they need to care for themselves and those they are called to serve."

In August, Boko Haram posted a video on Youtube showing dozens of the Chibok shoolgirls.

One of the girls said that "some" of her fellow pupils had been killed in military airstrikes while "about 40" had been married.

Some 15,000 people have been killed and more than two million displaced since Boko Haram's uprising in 2009.