03/09/2020
Meet Danish aid worker Anja Ringgren Lovén, founder of Land of Hope, a charity organisation that has been rescuing and catering for children accused of witchcraft in Nigeria since 2012 !
She went viral in 2016 when she rescued a two-year-old destitute boy who had been wandering the streets of Nigeria after his parents left him to die on counts of alleged witchcraft. A picture of Anja feeding the boy made international headlines, and saw her named 2016 Most Inspiring Person of the Year by German magazine, Oooms.
According to Anja, "Belief in magic was almost universal in the past , but while Europe and most of the western world shrugged it off, Africa held on to it, with theorists arguing that poverty and dire economic conditions act as fertilizer of sorts."
"We need to help villagers and change their mindsets. We need to enlighten them through advocacy," she insists.
Anja is married to a Nigerian, David Umem, with whom she runs an orphanage. The couple has a son.
Anja stands as a beacon of hope for the rejected, and just yesterday, she was appointed Ambassador for Peace by Universal Peace Federation.
TINN
