Danish charity worker Anja Ringgren Loven, is without a shadow of a doubt, a truly compassionate humanist. It was almost a year ago to the day that she was in Nigeria on a charity work mission when she stumbled across a tiny little toddler who would be later be known as ‘Hope‘. He had spent eight months surviving by himself in the streets. Naked, terribly emaciated and dying.
He had been cast out by his parents who believed him to be a witch. He was left to die. But Anja found him. She saved him and pictures of her giving the thirsty youngster a drink from a bottle of water went viral. Once they hit the net, more than $1m worth of donations came into the organization that Anja works for.
She has just gone back and found Hope again. He is happy, healthy and she caught him on his first day at school. They even recreated their famous photograph…
Anja told of her story in a touching and heartfelt message posted onto Facebook:
‘On the 30th of January 2016 I went on a rescue mission with David Emmanuel Umem, Nsidibe Orok and our Nigerian team.’
‘A rescue mission that went viral, and today it’s exactly one year ago the world came to know a young little boy called Hope
‘This week Hope will start school.’
Just twelve short months ago, Hope was plagued by worms and on death’s door. Now? Look at him!
Shortly after Hope’s rescue, Anja took to Facebook to tell everyone more about the idea of parents declaring their children as ‘witches’:
‘Thousands of children are being accused of being witches and we’ve both seen torture of children, dead children and frightened children. With all the money, we can, besides giving Hope the very best treatment, now also build a doctor clinic on the new land and save many more children out of torture.’
Truly inspiring. Good luck at school, Hope!
