Blooms of Nigeria

On April 14 more than 200 school girls were taken at gunpoint from their school dormitory in Chibok, Nigeria. You can read more on this and the resulting world response here.

I could not shake the horror from my mind and It came to me to do something to get the word out to the world in a visual way. The girls had gone, disappeared, what could we make to wait for them and make their abscence visible to the world? I came across a list of 180 of the girls names and i wanted to invite 180 women artists to illustrate a flower and dedicate it to their name in sisterhood, and hope. I spoke of this idea to a former student and amazingly talented illustrator Janna Morton and together we created this.

To date we have posted 110+  flowers and we have 70 more growing ! We ask that you take a look through the flowers, post your favourites, follow the tumblr or the twitter @bloomsofnigeria or like Blooms of Nigeria on Facebook. Spread the word- #bringbackourgirls. Its not a charity, its a vigil.

I’d like to post some more about the incredible women who have immediately responded to make these beautiful artworks, and although the project is not a charity, we hope that it does some good. It has certainly be a unifying activity for us and one which makes us connected to the world and reminds us of our humanity. – Rebecca Bradley