When UNICEF, Snapchat Join Forces to Launch #BringBackOurChildhood Campaign

One year ago, more than 200 schoolgirls in Chibok, Nigeria, were kidnapped by Islamic terrorist group Boko Harem and they still remain missing and unaccounted for. It sparked a global social media campaign, #BringBackOurGirls.

To extend the campaign for the 800,000 children who have been displaced in northeast Nigeria, UNICEF just announced a new campaign with the hashtag #BringBackOurChildhood.

The figures come as UNICEF draws attention to the devastating impact of the conflict on children across the region using the hashtag #bringbackourchildhood.

As part of this drive, UNICEF is using Snapchat – a social platform where messages disappear – to highlight the plight of the hundreds of thousands of children who are missing out on their childhoods as a result of the conflict.


To tell the stories of the children who have fled the violence, UNICEF and leading Snapchat artists will share images based on drawings from children in Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon.  The artwork reflects what children miss from home and the emotional wounds and suffering they have endured, including seeing their parents and siblings killed, tortured or abducted.

Faced with a severe funding shortfall, UNICEF is urging international donors to ramp up their financial support for relief efforts in Nigeria and the neighbouring countries. UNICEF has received only 15 per cent of the US$26.5 million required for its humanitarian response in Nigeria for 2015, and no more than 17 per cent for its overall humanitarian funding appeal for Cameroon, 2 per cent for Niger and 1 per cent for Chad.