Where Is Leah Sharibu?
As she turns 22 in captivity, the world must break its silence.
Birthdays cards have been coming in from around the world.
On May 14th, Leah Sharibu will mark her 22nd birthday.
There will be no cake.
No candles.
No singing voices rising around her.
Only silence.
The same silence that has surrounded her for six long years.
A silence that has become more than absence—it has become complicity.
Leah was just 14 when she was taken.
On a quiet February day in 2018, militants from Boko Haram raided the Government Girls’ Science and Technical College in Dapchi, Yobe State, in northeast Nigeria. Over 100 girls were taken including Leah.
Many were released within days.
But Leah was not.
Her captors gave her one condition: deny her Christian faith and she could go home.
She refused.
“I will not deny Jesus,”- she is believed to have said.
And with that, Leah vanished.
Out of the headlines.
Out of the world’s conversation.
But not out of our memory.
The Sound of Silence
Since Leah’s abduction, we have heard very little.
A voice recording. A rumour. A name in a passing news article.
There are whispers of forced marriage, of children born in captivity, of being transferred between groups.
But no confirmation. No accountability. No rescue.
There has been no urgent international outcry.
No UN commission.
No statement from Downing Street or the White House.
No serious diplomatic effort to demand her release.
It is not that the world cannot speak.
It is that the world has chosen not to.
That is why, at Kerygmos, we are refusing to be silent.
This May, we launched the “Where Is Leah Sharibu?” campaign—not just to remember Leah’s birthday, but to confront the global indifference surrounding it.
We began with children.
Through our Leah Birthday Card Campaign, young people from around the world have begun to write.
They are creating cards for Leah—cards full of colour, prayer, sorrow, and defiant hope.
“You are not forgotten.”
“We are praying for you.”
“We love you.”
Some children draw her smiling. Others simply ask:
“Where is Leah?”
We have been speaking about Leah to anyone who will listen.
From Parliament to the People
This campaign is not just symbolic—it is strategic.
We have written to over 600 Members of Parliament, urging them to speak Leah’s name in Parliament on May 14th, the day of her birthday at Prime Minister’s Questions.
We are asking them to raise a simple but urgent question:
What is the UK Government doing to ensure that Leah—and girls like her—are not forgotten?
Because while Leah is a Christian girl who refused to convert,
we recognise that many Muslim girls too have been abducted, violated, and abandoned.
This is not just a Christian issue.
It is a human one.
What You Can Do
We believe somebody, somewhere knows where Leah is.
Pray for her release, pray someone somewhere will come forward.
Write to your elected local politician - ask them for government to intervene.
We now have a dedicated WhatsApp line for this purpose if you would rather contact us.
📱 WhatsApp +1 646 787 8334
📧 leah@kerygmos.com
You can use these channels to:
Write a message of hope or a prayer to her and her family.
Share birthday wishes, however simple they may be.
Join a global day of prayer for Leah on her birthday organised by the Gideon and Funmi Para Mallam Foundation - contact us for details.
Let This Be the Day the Silence Breaks
The world may have forgotten Leah.
But we haven’t.
And we won’t.
Not when she had the courage to say "no" when the price of truth was captivity.
Not when her story still echoes in churches, mosques, schools, and refugee camps.
Not when children are still drawing her face—six years after the world stopped looking.
Join us. Speak her name. Ask your MP to act. Pray. Write. Share.
Because this May 14th, Leah Sharibu turns 22.
And with your help, it could be the day the silence ends.
