r/MadeMeSmile • u/Eloquentdyslexic • 4d ago
Progress pics of a boy abandoned in Nigeria for being considered a witch CLASSIC REPOST
[removed] — view removed post
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u/Delicious-Cut-7911 4d ago
I've seen this documentary and it is shocking watching the little boy age 3 wandering around his village asking for food and water only to be ignored by the locals. They branded him a witch. She took him to her home and raised him.
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u/HumbleConfidence3500 4d ago edited 4d ago
What made him a witch? He's just a child I don't think he knows any witchy anything.
I heard sometimes in African countries albino people are considered witches but this child doesn't look albino or have strong distinctively different features.
Edit: got corrected a few times. Albino people are not considered witches. Their bodies are considered ingredients for witch's brew. I'm not sure what's worse.
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u/Nerevarine91 4d ago edited 4d ago
In Nigeria, there’s actually an insane/grifting preacher named Helen Ukpabio, who spreads a lot of fear-mongering about child witches. From her book: “If a child under the age of two screams in the night, cries and is always feverish with deteriorating health he or she is a servant of Satan.“ She’s basically built an entire “ministry” about this. Unfortunately, she’s not the only one
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u/CheesyHobbitses 4d ago
Don't quite a few kids under 2 go through periods with those symptoms??
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u/Nerevarine91 4d ago
YUUUUP
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u/Woolilly 4d ago
Wow. Awful. How the fuck does this shit ever fly
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u/RUOFFURTROLLEH 4d ago
How the fuck does this shit ever fly
Lack of education.
Lack of ability to change it.
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u/WriterV 4d ago
Also just general poverty.
Poverty makes people anxious, and anxiety and fear makes for great motivators for making terrible decisions.
"I know witches don't seem real, but also I really cannot afford any bad luck right now. I want to help this child, but what if I do and I lose all my money? Or worse, my family gets put in danger? I can't risk it."
That becomes the thought process of all these people. Even education won't help if they don't have opportunities to earn money and feel secure.
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u/Kythorian 4d ago
Helen Ukpabio and evil assholes like her are known to send mobs to attack anyone who tries to help children accused of being witches or possessed by evil spirits too. So even if people don’t believe in any of it, there is a very real risk that they will be attacked for trying to help.
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u/Etheria_system 4d ago
If anyone is evil in this scenario, it’s her and her followers
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u/nonameforme123 4d ago edited 4d ago
But what’s the purpose of them doing that? Just being evil or do they earn $ from it?
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u/Sea_Dawgz 4d ago
You’re all acting like we don’t have average Americans that attend churches in America that have hate preachers spouting this same stuff.
Maybe we don’t abandon babies, but this week one said a witch possessed Dump during the debate to make him do poorly and millions of Americans thought “sounds right!”
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u/spook_sw 4d ago
My Southern Baptist preacher taught us that African people were the descendants of Cain and therefore justified racism.
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u/Red_Guru9 4d ago
Maybe we don’t abandon babies
The only reason, ONLY reason half this country doesn't abandon or physically exploit their children for money is because of secular law telling them they'll serve jail time for doing so.
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u/PandaMuffin1 4d ago
MAGA pastor and evangelical leader Lance Wallnau accused Kamala Harris of using "witchcraft" during Tuesday's presidential debate.
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u/Fappity_Fappity_Fap 4d ago
Exploiting others lack of knowledge about an issue through religious fearmongering while offering a solution that is easy for said others to apply.
You'd be surprised at how relatively easy it is to pull on others strings through that when you lack personal ethics.
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u/Meems04 4d ago
And people act like this is some underdeveloped world problem - but it's happening now, in the US, where we are supposedly educated. Look at Christianity and the LGBTQ community - there are libraries shutdown for containing a book with transpeople in it or childrens books where background characters have two moms or two dads. Disney boycotted for having gay characters.
All of it is based on 5 versus in the bible, which conveniently didn't even exist in the scripture prior to the 1940s. I mean, the Bibles oldest known language was Greek - there was no word for homosexual or gay in the Greek language at the time the Bible was written.
But let's pretend it was in there for a second. How many other things in the bible are much more prominent than sexuality or gender, but conveniently take a backseat because it's rampant in the Christian community. I don't see Christians out here protesting divorce or adultery like they do the gays. They sure as hell aren't trying to make divorce illegal or forcing people back to their first wife or husband.
This really isn't an intended bash on Christians, more a bash on Religion causing unnecessary pain when it's supposed to help people.
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u/Alfasi 4d ago
So, while the Old Testament definitely does disparage the gays even in the original Hebrew, it's still weird for Christians to adhere to that.
The entire point of Christianity is that the Old Testament rules are generally no longer in effect. Wanna eat shrimp or get a tattoo? No problem! But then when it's about gay people they're all "Leviticus this" and "Deuteronomy that".
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u/LaTeChX 4d ago
When you bring that up they quote "I did not come to break the covenant but to fulfill it" while they stuff their face with shrimp
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u/Critical-Quail-5800 4d ago
The same way a nation/group/individual/community of people can believe things like slavery are fine. That treating a human worse than an animal is fine. Or treat animals inhumane bc they are "just" an animal.
Dehumanization, desensitization. People can justify any actions by adding "it's just..." OR by disconnecting themselves from the suffering of those "not like them".
Happens a lot in small and big ways. And it's heartbreaking.
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u/The_Infinite_Cool 4d ago
Nigeria is wild. The combination of "I can just confess, God will forgive me" Christianity and mysticism has lead to shit like this.
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u/Fireboiio 4d ago
This will probably be controversial.
But all religions started out more or less like this. A time where religion was greater than proof and facts because of things already mentioned here; poverty, lack of education, over-population. Religion being used to control its people.
Some places just haven't evolved much and therefore some subjects at these places are still stuck 100s if not 1000s of years back.
You're basically looking at kind of a medieval africa in modern age. It's heartwrenching.
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u/Fast_Boysenberry9493 4d ago
Looks around, so we're all witches?
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u/CheesyHobbitses 4d ago
Seems that way. I love that 🐱🧙♀️💫
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u/yyz2112zyy 4d ago
Fuck yeah! We just need a Nimbus 2000 and we are good to go.
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u/sonic_couth 4d ago
Nimbus 2000 came out in 1997! Those are practically antiques now.
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u/SomethingNotWitty 4d ago
These new hybrid models don't have the same gusto and don't get me started on the CyberSweeper. Made out of steel and has sharp edges. It makes for the worst ride.
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u/lih9 4d ago
Of course, between teething and building up an immune system those symptoms are completely normal. She's the witch.
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u/wirefox1 4d ago
She's a superstitious old moron spreading hatred and abuse. I can't even imagine her inner-psychology.
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u/CoherentBusyDucks 4d ago
My son used to get night terrors. He would seem awake and he would scream and cry and you could tell his was terrified of something, but he was never fully awake and never remembered it the next day. It was awful to watch and I can’t imagine someone seeing a kid doing that and just saying “must be a witch. He can fend for himself!”
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u/CheesyHobbitses 4d ago
Yeah it seems crazy to think that one would (first) jump to the conclusion that the kid is a witch, but also (second) that you'd then disown them for it. Like literally reject this little kid that can't fend for itself at all. It's pretty messed up. I'm glad that this little kid did find someone who could help, I just feel sorry for any others that weren't so lucky :/
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u/Acceptable-Bell142 4d ago
When I was very young, I was in a cancer ward in a children's hospital here in Scotland. There was a two-year-old boy who had been dropped off at the ward by his parents, who then said they didn't want him anymore. The hospital had to get a court order to continue treating him because the parents refused to have anything to do with their son.
This little boy would try to get hugs from the parents of other kids. Sadly, his treatment didn't work.
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u/Webbie-Vanderquack 4d ago
This little boy would try to get hugs from the parents of other kids. Sadly, his treatment didn't work.
I honestly don't know which of those sentences is more heartbreaking.
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u/Acceptable-Bell142 4d ago
My mum still cries about that boy. When he died, the other parents took turns to sit with him so he didn't die alone. At least he knew love and affection at the end.
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u/CheesyHobbitses 4d ago
Yikes. It's fucked up that his parents left him. I'm sorry your mum still has a hard time with what happened, though it's an understandable reaction.
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u/Webbie-Vanderquack 4d ago
I'm so glad you told me that, thank you. Still heartbreaking, but I'm glad there were good people around him who showed him love.
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u/broctordf 4d ago
As a parent of a 2 yo boy and doctor, I curse those guys... I can't wrap my mind around the idea to let your own child to suffer and die alone.
and now I'm crying at my job and one of the nurses is looking at me weird.
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u/Acceptable-Bell142 4d ago
My dad is a doctor, and it hit him really hard, too.
Apologies for making you cry. Tell the nurse you're allergic to paperwork.
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u/sadderbutwisergrl 4d ago
It’s my son’s 2nd birthday today. He was so thrilled to get up today and put on his birthday shirt with spongebob and take cupcakes to his class. He has been asking to sing Happy Birthday at bedtime every night for the past week. He has not been the easiest toddler but he is a joy.
I too am bawling at work, but I’m sitting working at Panera so I’m just bawling at a table. I don’t have words for these people that do this.
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u/ocean_flan 4d ago
He's clearly communicating with the spirit world. His soul held to his body by a thin tether by virtue of his pact with Satan/s
But seriously, that's how a lot of people used to see epilepsy and stuff like that, as either being able to be possessed by spirits or be able to leave the physical realm and enter their world. It shows up in various cultures through the world. Some of these people are then venerated or damned depending upon the specific culture and condition.
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u/Abuses-Commas 4d ago
He's clearly communicating with the spirit world.
I actually think that myself, at least in some cases, but there's never a reason to abandon a child or show them anything but love.
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u/that-69guy 4d ago
There are days when I feel like I am a piece of shit...But then I hear about people like this..
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u/WhatTheTech 4d ago
I hope terrible things happen to that person. 🤷
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u/Nice-Grab4838 4d ago
I prefer the “terrible” verbiage
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u/WhatTheTech 4d ago
Same! I actually only added it because reddit made it look like the other one was deleted (by mods?)... So I stubbornly added it again.
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u/TheDanMonster 4d ago
Oh man. The first time my daughter slept through the night, she was 20 months old. My wife and I woke up to sunrise in a panic because every night for 20 months she would scream at least once a night. For the first six months we did shifts I was up with her until 2am and my wife from 2am til 8am. It was unreal how exhausting it was. I don’t remember much from that time except waking up in August on a Saturday in pure panic.
She such a sweet girl, and is ridiculously kind, and thoughtful. She won a Mr. Roger’s Award (creativity, kindness, and well-being toward schoolmates) at school last year, and I couldn’t be more proud. However, she’s turning 9 in a few months and getting her to get out of bed for school is the exact opposite 🤣 A good problem to have IMO.
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u/vinbrained 4d ago
The first time my daughter slept through the night, we couldn’t even wake her up. Until that night, the girl had eaten a meal every four hours for months. When both my wife and I woke up leisurely of our own accord, we looked at each other questioning, “Did you feed her this morning?”
Up in a panic, grab her from the portable crib (we were at a hotel). She wouldn’t wake up, so we panicked even more. Three minutes later, my wife and I are both dressed, getting ready to walk to a children’s hospital we discovered was two blocks from the hotel. As I go to grab my daughter, she opens her eyes, stretches and smiles, and looked at us like, “Cool. Where we going?”
She started sleeping through the night consistently after that.
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u/AppleViper 4d ago
People like her are the real witches. I hope the government raises awareness and arrests "witches" like her.
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u/i-touched-morrissey 4d ago
My first daughter cried all the time. She would have been considered the spawn of Satan. It's beyond belief that someone would not have any empathy for this child and try to comfort him.
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u/GayGeekInLeather 4d ago
Oh that fucking bitch. She funded/appeared in a Nigerian film called “End of the Wicked” that’s all about witchcraft and how everything bad that happens in your life is because of witches. I loathe her
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u/Purp1eC0bras 4d ago
Maybe the child is screaming bc of hunger, thirst, malnutrition, being unclothed, being cast out by your family, etc. Just a thought. Stupid to label them a witch and have them scream even more. Kind of self fulfilling
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u/dicotyledon 4d ago
Well, there’s colic. Super common even for healthy babies to be up at night screaming
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4d ago
Jesus. How can we remove this person and relocate them to a place where they can’t do this kind of harm??? This is terrifying.
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u/Kythorian 4d ago
Holy shit, this bitch sent a mob to attack a meeting of human rights advocates, then tried to sue the government for letting law enforcement protect the group of human rights advocates from her mob. Just…wow.
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u/Original-Material301 4d ago
From her book: “If a child under the age of two screams in the night, cries and is always feverish with deteriorating health he or she is a servant of Satan.“
Bruh. That's basically most kids <4 years old. What an evil mother fucker.
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u/Strangeronthebus2019 4d ago
In Nigeria, there’s actually an insane/grifting preacher named Helen Ukpabio, who spreads a lot of fear-mongering about child witches. From her book: “If a child under the age of two screams in the night, cries and is always feverish with deteriorating health he or she is a servant of Satan.“ She’s basically built an entire “ministry” about this. Unfortunately, she’s not the only one
Eeew…
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u/AdamOfIzalith 4d ago edited 4d ago
I was interested in this myself so I looked into it and found a pretty comprehensive resource here on it:
https://euaa.europa.eu/country-guidance-nigeria/29-individuals-accused-witchcraft
Witchcraft accusations are often directed towards persons who are related, such as neighbours, extended family members, even own children or parents. In some communities, twins (sometimes called ‘badly born babies’) are believed to have bad spirits that will bring misfortune upon their communities. Therefore, in several communities, twin babies (sometimes only one of them) are killed to avoid bad luck for their families. In other communities, the powers attributed to twins are regarded more ambiguously, as twins can see through hidden things and are respected and feared, being close to gods. Persons with visible physical disabilities (such as kyphosis) or severe mental disabilities are also potential targets. Elderly women may also be accused of witchcraft, for example in the case of the death of a child in the local community, miscarriage of a pregnant woman, ‘eccentric’ behaviour, outliving a deceased husband.
Punishment may involve severe beating, burning or stoning, naked parading, being compelled to drink lethal ‘medicines’, lynch mob. Children accused of witchcraft may face infanticide, abandonment, physical and sexual violence, stigmatisation. They may be denied schooling and risk being exposed to drugs and prostitution. They may also have to do illegal work or beg.
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In relation to individuals accused of witchcraft\, available information indicates that in the specific local context, persecution may be for reasons of religion and/or membership of a particular social group. Relevant particular social groups could be defined, for example, with regard to their innate characteristics (e.g. twins, persons with visible physical or mental disabilities); and the distinct identity of these groups in Nigeria, because they are perceived as being different by the surrounding society.**
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u/brydeswhale 4d ago
This sounds a lot like how witchcraft accusations worked in Europe and America in the early modern period.
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u/bennitori 4d ago
He had a medical condition. I don't remember what it was called. But his penis was malformed. In most developed countries, it's a very easy condition to fix. You'd never know someone had it, because 1: Who's asking? and 2: It's so easy to treat that it will probably get treated during childhood, and the fact you had it will just be a weird trivia quirk about you.
But this particular village had next to no medical education. So any time they saw a medical condition they didn't understand or didn't have resources to treat, they would say it was because the person got the condition as a side effect of being a witch.
The woman in that picture would often look for kids that were ostracized for being witches, and would raise them herself. This kid was one of those kids she found and raised.
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u/Cayowin 4d ago
its called - hypospadias, the urethra doesnt come out the top it comes out the underside. Simple fix by any regular plastic surgeon
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u/yumeryuu 4d ago
Albino aren’t considered witches, their body parts are considered witches brew ingredients.
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u/LDel3 4d ago
Just 20 years ago there was a genocide of the Pygmy people in the Congo where they ate their body parts because they believed eating Pygmy flesh would grant them superhuman abilities. Absolutely insane
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u/Abject_Champion3966 4d ago
You’d think this would easily be shown to be untrue.
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4d ago
"Okay Bob, if you develop super human strength or the ability to fly in the next day or so, I will strongly consider eating human flesh. Until then, please stop bringing body parts to my house."
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u/AnarchoBratzdoll 4d ago
In Nigeria anybody with mental illnesses and/or behaviourial issues is seen as a witch. Or twins. Or people with physical disabilities. He could've just been too angry one day.
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u/Dontpanicarthurdent 4d ago
He turned that blonde woman into a brunette! Are you gonna tell me he’s not a witch?
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u/NottaLottaOcelot 4d ago
He’s a good wizard to have around if he can save her $100 on a cut & color.
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u/Brabblenator 4d ago
It is an excuse to get rid of an unwanted child. Just as getting knocked up by a God was an excuse for sex outside a marriege.
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u/KrakenEatMeGoolies 4d ago
Right, a beloved family member or child is never going to be reluctantly accused of witchcraft. Nobody is going to be anguished because the grandmother they love dearly eats food too loudly, or chuckles to herself, or exhibits any of the other arbitrary "signs" of witchcraft. The people that are accused of witchcraft (using any random trait or behavior as an excuse) are already undesirable, "burdensome", or otherwise unloved. You can't kill someone just for being unloved, disabled, etc. so you say they're a witch to justify it.
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u/ericlikesyou 4d ago
Links to the videos:
12 min doc with this same woman in it
Here's an update from last year, where this boy reuinites with his biological mother
The story of the boy's mother is extremely tragic as well
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u/Backwardspellcaster 4d ago
Jesus Christ... its a friggin child!
What is wrong with these fucking people?
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u/RustyNewWrench 4d ago
I know people will make excuses for the locals, but fuck them. Anybody that can ignore a starving 3 old deserves everything bad in the world.
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u/ottersandgoats 4d ago
What's the documentary called?
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u/panosflows 4d ago
The One With Hope
See the redditor's comment: https://www.reddit.com/r/MadeMeSmile/comments/1ffspuz/comment/lmxa02w/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
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u/Few-Check-4761 4d ago
This is why it’s so important for humans to ditch all religions and superstitions
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u/nadzicle 4d ago
Idk why it isn’t mentioned that a charity organisation was formed and then I think an orphanage that was called Land of Hope where they take in kids that have been outcast and called witches and they help educate them and look after them. This woman is the founder of it, I believe alongside her husband?
There’s like 100 kids there, from a fb post I saw when looking this up. Some of the stuff was in danish.
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u/Nice-Grab4838 4d ago
A home for a bunch of witches? So you mean a coven?
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u/Rough_Principle_3755 4d ago
I didn’t see this school represented in any of the Harry Potter movies.
Pretty sure they would have swept all the quidditch matches
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u/namtok_muu 4d ago
Their Instagram is pretty active, they're still rescuing abandoned kids. I wonder if the parents ever see their abandoned kid years later, grown-up and healthy.
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u/SarcasticAzaleaRose 4d ago
I follow their Instagram page and they do take a couple of the kids to visit parents, siblings and occasionally other relatives. But those cases are only when those relatives weren’t the ones calling the children witches or participating in the abuse.
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u/Odd-fox-God 4d ago
I feel bad for some of the mothers. Imagine giving birth to a child with down syndrome, you love your new son, you just think he's a bit special, maybe blessed by the gods?
Unfortunately someone declares that your son is a witch. Your son is now taken from you and any attempts to help him will put your other children in danger. You do what you can but are helpless, you gave birth to this child yourself and you know he's not a witch. Why can't other people see that he's blessed by God and not a witch?
Now maybe I'm just over using my imagination but I can totally see a scenario like this happening, where the mother is loving and wants her child but the village turns against her. When your entire community of 60 plus people is against you and might even turn violent it would be very hard to support your witch child.
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u/SarcasticAzaleaRose 4d ago
Sadly your imagination isn’t that far off from several of these kids actual stories. A couple of the kids who were eventually reunited with parents, siblings, and relatives that’s exactly what happened. The kid was accused for some reason or another and the family was powerless to fight back against their community or they’d be risking themselves or their other children. Some of the families still had to flee their villages even after sending the accused child away. All while not knowing if their child is alive or was killed.
It’s easy to condemn these children’s parents as all being evil and horrible. And sadly a lot of them did abandon these children without a thought. But some of these kids parents were stuck in a horrible situation with no good outcome and had to make one of the hardest decisions they’d ever have to make. Some of these visit videos are heartbreaking hearing what these families went through. I think I remember one video where the mother was clutching her son’s hand but couldn’t even look at her son because she was so ashamed that she failed to protect him (I think villagers tried to kill him with machetes). I think another an uncle was nearly in tears asking his niece if she could forgive him for not being able to get to her in time.
I think the boy in the picture Hope is one such case. I do think they eventually found Hope’s mother in another village and he occasionally goes to visit her.
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u/MonkeyHamlet 4d ago
They found this little boy's mother.
https://landofhope.global/en/product/hopes-biological-mother/
She was 15 when he was born, raped by a 50 year old village elder and then exiled from the village when she had a second child a year later.
The pictures of them being reunited are heartbreaking.
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u/BelleLorage 4d ago
I hope not. They don't deserve to see them thrive when they left them to die
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u/mrmoe198 4d ago edited 4d ago
I think this is more about disproving the witch fear-mongering through evidence that “look this is a happy and well-adjusted normal person, you were mislead.”
The parents in this scenario are victims of abusive and manipulative religious practices. No one is a winner here besides for the evil faith leaders.
Edit: Upon further thinking, I like that you have reasonable and righteous anger on this poor child’s behalf. I wish our shared feelings of outrage could be channeled into positive results for kids like him.
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u/Webbie-Vanderquack 4d ago
The parents in this scenario are victims of abusive and manipulative religious practices.
Exactly. The boy in the picture is called Hope, and his mother was 14 when she was found to be pregnant, a victim herself. She likely had no say in what happened to her son when he was taken away and left for dead. She visits him at the Land of Hope Centre, and the centre has helped her start a small business.
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u/Webbie-Vanderquack 4d ago
I hope not. They don't deserve to see them thrive when they left them to die
There are posts on Anja Ringgren Lovén's IG with Hope (the little boy in the picture above) and his mother, who comes to visit him at the centre.
They tracked down Hope's mother because they feel children "each have the human right to an identity," which includes knowing where they came from and understanding what happened to them.
Hope's mother, Dominica, was one of 13 siblings and was only 14 years old when she became pregnant with Hope - still a child herself. From one of Anja's IG posts:
In Nigeria, the unequal power dynamics between men and women foster a society where men feel entitled to sexually abuse women and girls. When Hope was 1 year old Justina [she prefers 'Dominica'] got pregnant again. The truth is, the pain of women and girls is not a big deal in Nigeria. One in four females are victims of sexual abuse. Justina deserves a new beginning where she can develop her potentials and the best way is to provide her with tools to better her life. [at]davidumem and I have found a shop to rent where we will set up a business entrepreneur for Justina.
It might be worth rethinking your attitude to parents. Not all of them "left [their] children to die." Some of them had their children taken from them, or were children themselves. In some cases bringing parents back into the lives of the children has been a positive for both parent and child at the Land of Hope centre. Some of these parents, especially women, have been victims of the same brutal, dehumanising ideologies.
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u/iMiserable 4d ago
Whilst your anger is understandable, a more constructive approach might be to help these parents recognize their mistakes and promote greater cultural awareness. They are not well-educated and have had their superstitions exploited by bad actors. Instead of focusing solely on their faults, encouraging them to see where they went wrong could lead to meaningful change. They should see them thrive.
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u/pragmaticzach 4d ago
Idk why it isn’t mentioned
well a picture is worth a thousand words but it might have been hard to fit all that detail in.
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u/2002Valkyrie 4d ago
I’m not smiling. I am appalled that someone abandoned a baby and then no one took it! WTH is wrong with people?
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u/TrekChick267 4d ago
The mother was 15, and the father 50. She was forced to abandon him, and then apparently sold into slavery basically. According to the organizations website.
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u/BlondiyDemon 4d ago
How often are young children in Nigeria accused of being witches and made outcasts?
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u/OnceMoreAndAgain 4d ago
if they believe in witches then i have a bridge to sell to their prince
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u/AMViquel 4d ago
Hello, I am the prince. I need 2000 USD upfront for the bridge loan. Do you have Western Union nearby? It needs to finish today so I can buy your bridge!
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u/Ilikegreenteatoo 4d ago
Which is why education is important, anywhere, on any topic.
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u/foggin_estandards2 4d ago
Her name is Anja Ringgren Lovén and she's a wonderful human being. Not only is she helping these beautiful and innocent souls from being accused of witchcraft, but she's helping them grow as amazing human beings and achieve things, and they, in turn, also help the younger children feel accepted and prosper.
This case is basically the duality of mankind. As horrible as we can be, we can also be amazing.
She has FB and Instagram handles. If anyone wants to donate to her NGO please feel free to do so.
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u/iwannahitthelotto 4d ago
Just donated $110 because of this post and the amazing woman
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u/fitnextdooor 4d ago
So sad. Glad someone took care of him
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u/muffpatty 4d ago
It is crazy to look at a small child and think something so insane. Btw, did anyone notice the aid worker has the Wicked Witch of the West tattooed on her leg? Kind of amusing now, especially after seeing the progress pic.
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u/Sollarxlem 4d ago
Nice. Seen the first pic plenty of times but Ive never seen the 2nd. Glad little guy is doin well
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u/CatmatrixOfGaul 4d ago
And he is looking so adorable in that outfit and those shoes
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u/officefridge 4d ago
He looks ridiculously cute! And he is strong and sturdy looking, too!
Just a boy who wants to live. And he, like all children, deserves to have a chance.
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u/LobsterParade 4d ago
Those people who let a small child hunger and thirst should burn in hell.
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u/Worried_Wafer_8335 4d ago
It’s religious reasons why that child was in this predicament in the first place.
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u/RoboticBonsai 4d ago
Then they should still burn in hell.
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u/blackholeX100 4d ago
Hell is a religious construct used to give those unjustified a reason to feel recompensed… but that is not the case.
Don’t wait for hell—act now and condemn. It’s the only time we have.
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u/Sensitive-Badger-597 4d ago
That’s Anja! My parents went to high school with her and remain friends till this day. She is an amazing woman, she has saved so many children and treat them all as her own. Seeing them thrive, laugh and play is just magical
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u/Annoyingswedes 4d ago
I remember when this first came out in the news, made my cry but I'm so happy she was there to help.
It also reminds me of this documentary I saw about the Mingi tradition in Ethiopia, real fucked up shit.
"Mingi is the traditional belief among the South Omotic-speaking Karo and Hamar peoples of southern Ethiopia that children with perceived and true physical abnormalities are ritually impure. An example of perceived abnormalities include the top teeth erupting before bottom teeth. Children born out of wedlock (marriage) are also considered impure and therefore capable of bringing curses upon the people.
The fear of curses or bad luck for the tribe leads to the killing of many children. These children are disposed of either through drowning, putting soil in their mouths and strangling or leaving infants in the forest. The elders make the decision to brand a child mingi but the deaths are carried out by various members of the tribe. The Karo tribe officially banned the practice of mingi in July 2012, but it remains an active part of the belief system in others. It is believed as many as 686,000 individuals secretly practice it in other Omotic communities."
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u/R9D11 4d ago
If they really believe that he is witch wouldn't it be wiser to treat him nice because as a witch he can put a spell on them.
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u/Tom-Pendragon 4d ago
I always view myself as a pretty stoic man, but I get filled with pure fucking seething rage each time I see a child suffer extreme poverty for no reason.
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u/Femme-O 4d ago
I want someone to write a story about him secretly growing into a powerful warlock and returning to fuck up the priest who shunned him.
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u/yyz2112zyy 4d ago
"Remember me puny priest? Turns out you were right all along. You should have burned me when you had the chance. AVADA KEDAVRA!!!"
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u/Stingus99999 4d ago
How can they do this
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u/Silent-Silvan 4d ago
Spiritual belief in witch craft and "voodoo" type curses is extremely ingrained in Nigeria and Ghana.
My ex-husband is Ghanaian/Nigerian. He was a practicing Muslim but he still believed vehemently in witchcraft, despite living for years in the EU.
It eventually lead to our divorce as he was utterly convinced he had been cursed. He told me he had to return to Africa periodically or he would die, and that someone who was jealous of him had cursed him so that he would be unsuccessful in the EU. What he was really suffering from is acute depression. I went with him to the doctor. He refused to believe the doc and chose to believe it was witchcraft instead.
He left me and our 2 year old son destitute when he refused to take medication and instead went back for months to his country.
I feel sorry for him. He had never managed to make anything of his life because of this misplaced faith in witch craft.
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u/damnedspot 4d ago
Well, to begin with, in the first photo he weighed the same as a duck.
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u/Eloquentdyslexic 4d ago
Source - Aid worker Anja Ringgren Lovén found the two-year old boy on the brink of starvation and riddled with worms. She provided much needed medical care and adopted the boy, naming him Hope.
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u/Hendrik_the_Third 4d ago
OMG that poor kid... that small, done nothing wrong and branded a witch and left to starve.
What a cruel fate :'( I'm happy he's doing well, now.
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u/OsmundofCarim 4d ago
I gotta say this doesn’t really make me smile. It’s great people are helping these kids but the fact that this happens to the kids at all makes me sick
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u/Food_Kindly 4d ago
He’s so stinking cute. This is humanity at its finest, with this woman taking him in.
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u/bongowasd 4d ago
Its so weird to see the whole magic thing still be a thing today. Like police officers that abandon their post because they think Goblins are nearby... Like. I don't even. These people have mobiles. Actual adults who think this way and have their emotions guided by it is crazy to me.
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u/Mathieran1315 4d ago
Fucking hell I have a pretty dead empty heart but seeing how people could abandon a poor little innocent kid like that makes me tear up with rage and sadness. It’s nice to see him thriving now and I hope nothing but good things for him.
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u/FinanceTemporary9142 4d ago
There are whole IG pages dedicated to shaming good people like her by calling her a "white savior"
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u/naavep 4d ago
I was just about to say that I hope the world isn't so lost that this woman would be criticized after what she did...I should know better at this point.
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u/Recoaj12 4d ago
Only true racists will fixate on the skin colour of the woman and the child, instead of looking past the skin and solely at the actions and the heart.
Man, what a world we live in that these kind of racist lowlifes can tear down good people like her
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u/Vounrtsch 4d ago
Not gonna lie I don’t see how that can make someone smile. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad he’s getting better, but the fact he was in this situation to begin with only makes me sad and angry personally
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u/YenniferOfVeng3rberg 4d ago
That woman is a blessing. She saved that boys life. We need more people like her in this cruel world. ❤️
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u/rabbitsarepsychotic 4d ago edited 4d ago
For anyone wondering:
‘In the documentary “The One With Hope,” you can get a unique insight into Anja’s remarkable life as a Danish aid worker in Nigeria and as the founder of Land of Hope. The organization with Danish roots has rescued and taken custody of – so far – 93 children who have been in the worst imaginable situations you could ever wish for a child.
Anja herself became world-famous in 2016 when a photo of her in front of the little ‘witch child,’ Hope, went viral on the internet.
Millions of people have followed Hope’s story. From when he, at 2 years old, came into Anja’s arms and incredibly survived, even though his little body could take no more. To today, at 10 years old, he is a top student in school, an excellent dancer, and just an ordinary boy who lives, happy and healthy, at the Land of Hope children’s center. He has filled many hearts with gratitude and reflection, making it more important than ever that we put ‘witch children’ on the global agenda and break the curse over Nigeria.’
https://landofhope.global/en/product/documentary-on-hbo-max/
ETA - thank you for the awards!