These Girls Escaped Boko Haram. Now They're Sharing Their Stories.
Two Nigerian kidnapping victims are working to keep other girls from suffering the horrors they faced.
Standing on a corner just off Manhattan’s Times Square, Ya Kaka and Hauwa giggle over a street artist’s caricature. Colorful fabric peeks out from the bottoms of their oversized winter coats but still, the teenage girls blend in seamlessly, enjoying a moment of beautiful anonymity they’ve struggled to find since escaping captivity at the hands of Nigeria’s feared Islamist extremist group, Boko Haram.
“We never thought we would escape and [be here today],” Ya Kaka says as she reflects on her journey to America. She’s wearing a winter hat with the words “Washington, D.C.” circling the bottom and a puffy white pom-pom at the top. “I never thought I [would] survive.”
Ya Kaka and Hauwa—identified only by their first names for security
