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Land of Hope: Rescuing abandoned Nigerian children.
A practice among some Nigerian parents is witchcraft. Among the extreme actions they may take are to abandon a child deemed a "witch," leaving the child to die.
Anja Ringgren Lovén and her husband David Emmanuel Umem started Land of Hope to rescue as many of these children as possible.
In 2016 on social media, Anja became famous when people all over the world saw this photo of her gently feeding a horribly malnourished 2-year-old boy, hoping to save this tiny "witch."
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In this photo, Anja is feeding him crackers and water, after which she softly scooped him up in her arms and took him to the hospital.
"When we got him in the car, I looked at my husband and told him we should name him Hope," said Anja. "I didn't want him to die without a name. I wanted him to die with dignity."
But Hope survived and now lives with over 70 other beautiful children at Land of Hope.
Setting on three acres in Southeast Nigeria, it is run by Anja and David.
According to its website, Land of Hope is West Africa's largest private children's center, including a children's home, healthcare center and a vocational school.
For Anja, it began in 2008, when she saw a British Documentary of African children accused of witchcraft being tortured, abandoned, or killed.
Horrified, this led her from her native Denmark, to become an aid worker in Africa. In the process, she met and married David, a Nigerian law student and aid worker.
In 2012, they started what is now Land of Hope, a beacon to children in desperate need, where they will be safe, loved, and educated.
Editor's Note:
To learn more landofhope.global/en/anja/, wikipedia.org and aljazeera.com/features/2018/11/14/how-nigerias-fear-of-child-witchcraft-ruins-young-lives.
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