Nothing is more damaging than an education cut short

Boko Haram has murdered 600 teachers and displaced 19,000 in an effort to stop children getting the education they need to break the cycle of poverty, writes AnneMarie McCarthy       

I LOVED school. I loved going to school and learning and dreaming of what the future would bring. My favourite teachers were the ones who encouraged us to think for ourselves, to read books that others considered too challenging or inappropriate , and to not just accept things because we were told. I am now a humanitarian worker and have wanted this to be my career for most of my life, even if as a child, I did not have the words to articulate this.

This week I’m in Nigeria, a country where a major crisis is unfolding that’s getting very little international coverage. This is the same country where one night in 2014, Boko Haram kidnapped more than 250 girls from their school. Girls who were getting a chance at a decent education that could change their lives forever. Who knows what dreams were being created by simply being in school?