On January 30, 2016, Danish aid worker Anja Ringgren Lovén and her husband David Emmanuel Umem were in Nigeria on a rescue mission to save the lives of as many as thousands of children who had been abandoned by their parents because they are feared to be witches.
Such was the case for a little boy Anja, who is the co-founder of the African Children’s Aid Education and Development Foundation, now calls Hope.
When Anja found Hope, the then-two-year-old was naked, alone, and made up of hardly skin and bones.
In a bid to raise funds for his much-needed medical treatment, as well raise awareness around child abandonment in Nigeria, Anja started a blog for Hope.
“We found this boy, I chose to call him HOPE,” Anja wrote on her blog this time last year. “Because right now, we’re all hoping that he survives.”
Now, 12 months later, the left-for-dead boy is barely recognisable, having put on weight and smiling from ear to ear.
Not only that, but the now-happy-and-healthy youngster youngster will soon be attending school.
“Today it’s exactly 1 year ago the world came to know a young little boy called Hope,” Anja wrote in a Facebook. “This week Hope will start school.”
As reported by CBS News, Hope lives in an orphanage run by Anja and her husband that is also home to another 35 other children.
“As you can see, Hope is growing with speed and he is such a handsome, healthy and very happy young boy because of the tremendous love and care he receives everyday from our staff and all our children,” Anja says.
“Where there is love there is hope.”
