Three weeks ago the kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls in Nigeria was treated as merely the latest in a line of attacks in that country by the religious extremist group Boko Haram—noted briefly, and just as quickly forgotten until tireless campaigning by the girls’ families and an accompanying social media campaign forced action. Nigeria’s president, previously silent on the kidnappings, has promised to secure the girls’ return. The state department offered the Nigerian government its assistance. Protests at the UN and in Nigeria are helping to keep global attention on the plight of these young women. “You have not been forgotten,” Melissa Harris-Perry told the girls in an open letter on her show this weekend. “We are sorry it took us so long to pay attention, but we are watching now. We are pounding the drums because each of you matter.”
—Corinne Grinapol