A petition for Bermuda residents has been launched to protest the kidnapping of almost 300 schoolgirls in northeastern Nigeria by the terror group Boko Haram.

Amnesty International (Bermuda), the The Bermuda Union of Teachers and Imagine Bermuda have joined the global movement to ‘Bring Back Our Girls’ and will be at the Washington Mall today from Noon to 4pm collecting signatures.

Yesterday, BUT members wore red just as co-unionists in the Caribbean to protest the attack on the school and kidnapping of the girls and forced conversions to Islam on the girls that are Christian in Chibok.

The BUT is also encouraging their members to post pictures of support of #BRINGBACKOURGIRLS #BUTbda on their Facebook Page.

Imagine Bermuda coordinated school-wide reflection in public and private schools yesterday morning and asks adults to set aside time this weekend to “reflect on this matter of Global importance and it might be used as a ‘teachable moment’ for the young people in our lives”.

At Warwick Academy, the school’s coordinator of Amnesty International’s Human Rights Friendly Schools Project assisted teachers in leading discussions, making posters or writing essays on the tragedy.

At Bermuda High School, age appropriate discussions took place and posters were made and photographed.

A collage of all the photos was created and is available on various social media outlets, including it’s Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Bermuda-High-School/121880661259956.

BHS girls’s suggestions included writing letters to the Nigerian government, putting pressure on governments worldwide to send support and addressing the issue of human trafficking.

The groundswell against the kidnapping can be traced to the creation of the Twitter account: #BringBackOurGirls.

The public can submit a solidarity photo at the Amnesty web page — http://bringbackourgirls.tumblr.com/.