A Nigerian boy named Hope was left alone by his parents and villagers. They thought he was a witch. But now, after four years of being taken care of by a charity, he’s doing well and has a talent for art.
In early 2016, a 2-year-old Nigerian boy touched hearts around the world with a photo on social media. The picture showed a small, malnourished child sitting alone on the street, being cared for by Anja Ringgren Lovén, a volunteer from Denmark who runs the charity DINNødhjæl.
The Ƅoy, naмed Hope, was aƄandoned Ƅy his faмily and ʋillagers, shunned for Ƅeing a witch.
When we found him, Hope was in really bad shape. He was very skinny and had lots of illnesses. For the first two weeks at the hospital, he was very sick. We couldn’t even visit him. I’m not sure if he’ll make it,” Anja said
Anja brought Hope back to her charity after taking care of lots of abandoned children for eight years. After being looked after and nurtured for four years, Hope has changed a lot. “Hope is very healthy now and enjoys going to school. He is very smart and loves art. He’s really good at drawing, and many of his paintings are sold. We call him the little Picasso,” said Anja. Since coming back to DINNødhjæl, Hope hasn’t seen her parents again, and the organization hasn’t been able to find any of her relatives. Despite a difficult start, Hope can now happily look back at the photo of when Anja found her.
“He would often look at the photo and smile like he was happy,” said Anja, who now works as an ambassador for Universal Peace Federation International. “But I know that’s not real happiness. Children are born with the ability to forgive and without prejudice. We raised Hope to love, not to hold grudges against her parents, who abandoned her and falsely accused her of wrongdoing. They called me a witch and left me on the street to die. This kind of injustice and cruelty is unacceptable. No society can succeed if people are deprived of basic human rights like education, healthcare, and social support.”
Accusations of witchcraft often come from things like someone dying or getting sick in the family, crops not growing well, people losing their jobs, or not being able to have babies. Sometimes, when these bad things happen, children get blamed and called witches. Then, even their own community might abandon them. Anja and her team have taken care of over 300 children and now look after 76 kids at DINNødhjæl, which is the biggest children’s center in West Africa. Some of these children are 9 years old and have suffered terrible things like torture, sexual abuse, and even being buried alive.
Education is the best thing you can do for a society. It helps fight ignorance, which is like being in the dark about things. When you want to solve a problem, talking and working together with others is more important than just judging them. We’re good at what we do, and we should help people understand new ideas, especially in places far from cities, by supporting programs that speak up for those ideas,” Anja explained
