Protesters calling for the release of 219 Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram militants are set today to mark the six-month anniversary of their abduction with a march on the presidency. Members of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign are planning to walk to President Goodluck Jonathan's official residence in Abuja to keep up the pressure on the government to bring the missing teenagers home.[caption id="attachment_11898" align="alignnone" width="350"] #Bringbckourgirls candlelit vigil on 12 October[/caption] The march is the culmination of a series of events in the past week, including a candlelit vigil, to keep the fate of the girls in the public eye, as media coverage and on-line interest wanes. The daughter and niece of Enoch Mark, an elder in Chibok from where the girls were abducted, are among those missing. "At one point we contemplated holding funeral rites for the girls as our tradition provides," he told AFP. Parents have run the gamut of emotions in the last six months, from initial hope to despair and back again, he added. "But the discovery of a girl last month... who was kidnapped by Boko Haram in January gave us renewed hope that our girls would be found. [caption id="attachment_11899" align="alignnone" width="400"] some of the girls abducted in Chibok on 14 April[/caption] "If this girl could regain freedom after nine months in captivity all hope is not lost that our daughters would one day be free. "This has rekindled our hope and strengthened our patience. We are ready to wait six years on hoping to have our daughters back with us." Some 276 girls were seized from their dormitories at the Government Girls Secondary School in the remote town of Chibok in Borno state, northeastern Nigeria, on the night of April 14. Fifty-seven managed to escape and Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau later threatened to sell the remainder as slave brides, vowing they would not be released until militant prisoners were freed from jail. In late May, Nigeria's most senior military officer, Chief of Defence Staff Alex Badeh, said the girls had been located but ruled out a rescue because of the danger to the girls' lives. Since then, nothing has been seen or heard from the girls while back channel talks with militant leaders have stalled.[caption id="attachment_11900" align="alignnone" width="400"] another set of the girls[/caption] - Campaigns still running - The girls' initial weeks in captivity sparked a frenzy of media coverage and interest on-line, where the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls trended on Twitter and was retweeted the world over. Nigerian Bring Back Our Girls campaigners have since held regular marches in Abuja, even as global attention shifted elsewhere and foreign missions involved in the search grew frustrated at the lack of progress. "Globally, the movement has definitely slowed down," acknowledged Molade Alawode, of the Washington-based non-profit organisation Act4Accountability, which spearheaded protests in the US capital to highlight the girls' plight. But she said efforts were continuing, including providing relief supplies for the tens of thousands of people displaced by the conflict in Nigeria's far northeast. An online petition on change.org launched earlier this year by Ify Elueze, a Nigerian student in Germany, has drawn more than one million signatures, with more names being added every day, many of them from the United States. In Los Angeles, documentary filmmaker Ramaa Mosley keeps a running total of the number of days the girls have been held on her social media accounts, taking inspiration from the Nigerian protesters still on the streets.[caption id="attachment_1198" align="alignnone" width="320"] The abducted school girls: as shown on video by Shekau[/caption] "Of course, since there is less information to print, there is less of a focus in the news but my experience is that individuals that first came forwarded to organise events and rallies have held strong and continued to support the cause," she said. "Our followers on Facebook want to help and continue to take actions both big and small to keep the girl's plight in the minds and hearts of their community. "My feeling is, the pain of this travesty is so big and there are so much other painful world news but there are many, many who have not stopped working daily on behalf of the Chibok girls. "We will continue until they are home safely." The story so far -- APRIL 2014 -- - 14: 276 girls, aged from 12 to 17, are seized from the remote town of Chibok in Borno state, northeast Nigeria. Boko Haram gunmen storm the girls' boarding school, forcing them from their dormitories onto trucks and driving them into the bush. Fifty-seven girls manage to flee. - 29: Parents lash out at the government's failure to rescue the girls. -- MAY -- - 1: Hundreds of parents, many dressed in red, protest in Chibok to demand help from the government and other countries. - 5: Boko Haram's leader Abubakar Shekau says in a video that his group carried out the mass abduction and vows to sell the girls as slave brides. - 7: US First Lady Michelle Obama tweets a picture of herself with a sign reading #BringBackOurGirls, joining the social media campaign that has also attracted politicians, actors and other prominent public figures such as Pakistani eduction activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai and CNN star anchor Christiane Amanpour. - 9: Amnesty International claims that Nigeria's military was warned of the school attack but failed to take action due to lack of manpower. The military denies the allegation. The UN Security Council strongly condemns the mass kidnappings which it says "may amount to crimes against humanity" under international law. - 10: British, French and US experts provide help for the search operation. China and Israel also offer assistance. - 12: Boko Haram releases a new video showing about 100 of the missing girls, alleging that the teenagers have converted to Islam and will not be released until militant prisoners are freed. - 17: Nigeria and its neighbours Benin, Chad, Cameroon and Niger vow to work together to fight Boko Haram in what Cameroon President Paul Biya describes as a "declaration of war".[caption id="attachment_11896" align="alignnone" width="512"] Some os the Chibok schoolgirls captured in April[/caption] - 21: The United States deploys 80 military personnel to Chad to help regional efforts to rescue the schoolgirls. - 26: Nigeria's highest ranking military officer, Chief of Defence Staff Alex Badeh, says they have located the missing teenagers but warns a rescue operation would put their lives at risk. - 27: News emerges that Nigeria's former president Olusegun Obasanjo has been in talks with Boko Haram to broker a deal to release the girls. -- JUNE -- - 12: Representatives from Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Benin agree to strengthen joint efforts to find the schoolgirls and defeat Boko Haram. - 24: Local officials say at least 30 people were killed and 68 women and girls abducted in several fresh attacks. On July 4 however, 63 of them manage to escape. -- JULY -- - 18: Borno state Governor Kashim Shettima says that 176 teachers have been killed and 900 schools destroyed in Borno since Boko Haram began attacking them in 2011, because they are centres of Western education - 22: First meeting between Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan and the schoolgirls' relatives. -- SEPTEMBER -- - 25: Nigeria's police claim that one of the schoolgirls has been found but elders reject the claim.