How the life of a emaciated Nigerian boy turned out in a famous photo of 2016
God grant that there are more such people with a big kind heart in the world!
In 2016, all the world’s media reprinted an impressive photo in which a very thin and exhausted black boy greedily drinks water from a bottle held by a white female volunteer.
Anya approached the child and gave her a drink from a bottle, her partner photographed this moment. The girl fed the baby and took it with her, took it to the shelter, and she herself tried to figure out how such a baby was left on his own and why no one wanted to help him.
It turned out that Hope’s parents abandoned him because they were sure that he was a sorcerer. Although Nigeria is a religious country (46% Christians, 56% Muslims), almost everyone believes in magic.
Every year, about 10 thousand children from birth to 7 years old suffer from the fact that someone accuses them of witchcraft! Most of them are killed, some are buried alive,
some are made outcasts, like this boy. The «demonism» of these children may manifest itself in some kind of illness, active behavior, rapid development or physical feature.
The Christian church cannot handle these wild beliefs. Therefore, it was decided there to save the children with exorcism rituals, after which it is announced that the child is cleansed and taken home.
Anya Ringgren has been helping abandoned children in Nigeria to rehabilitate themselves for 10 years now, and then get a full-fledged education. In 2011, Anja traveled to Africa with charitable organizations, and a year later, Anya founded her own organization, DINNødhjælp.
She is also the founder of the children’s center «Land of Hope».
Anya Ringgren with the children she saved. Photo: Anja Ringgren Loven’s Facebook page
This boy, who was very weak, was named Hope, Anya placed in the Children’s Help Center, and the resonance raised in the world helped to raise a decent amount for orphanages.
Today, Hope looks like a well-groomed and healthy boy. He walked with a hearing aid for a long time, now he is absent from the photographs.
Anna posted the following on her Instagram account:
Today, Hope is a very strong and healthy boy with incredible self-esteem. He is very smart and loves to go to school. He likes to live. I mean he really wants to learn something new every day. You can see him creating toys out of nothing. He has a creative mind. He has a lot of courage. He is not afraid of anything.
