Woman Who Rescued A Two-Year Old Nigerian Boy Accused Of Witchcraft Named The Most Inspiring Person Of The Year 2016

Before and After photo of Loven and Hope

Anja Lovén, a care worker who rescued a two-year-old Nigerian boy accused of witchcraft and abandoned by family was named the most inspiring person of the year.

She took the hungry toddler to an orphanage, where he was treated for worms and malnutrition.

Before he was rescued by Ms Lovén, Hope had been abandoned by own family for being a "witch" and was wandering naked through the streets of Akwa Ibom state surviving on food given by locals.

Loven and Hope

Well, now she has topped the international list of the most inspiring people of the year beating such prominent figures as Pope Francis, Barack Obama and the Dalai Lama among others.

This story highlights the work the woman and her husband, David, are doing to help orphan children in Nigeria.

Anja Lovén – Bringing Down Superstitious Barriers In Nigeria

In a world were concepts like “barbarism”, “divisiveness” and “intolerance” are common, Anja Lovén dared to rescue a 2-year-old Nigerian kid from starving to death.

The kid was abandoned by his family in Nigeria and left out on the streets to die, because he was thought to be a witch. It was one of the brutal examples of superstitions that still prevail in the medieval atmosphere of Nigeria.

Lovén has studied the rise of superstition in remote parts of Nigeria for a long time. She has travelled extensively to the African country. She has experienced first-hand the torture and mistreatment that “witch-children” have to go through.

The experience touched her so deep that she decided to sell everything she had back in Denmark. She moved to Nigeria with her partner, David, to help out these children in need.

Loven and Hope few months after rescue

When she got a call about the abandoned Nigerian boy, she wasted no time and jumped into action. The Nigerian boy, now called Hope, was found wandering in the streets, he was the size of a baby.

“I became a mother myself 20 months ago and I was thinking of my own son when I saw the boy,” said Lovén, reports CPH Post Online.

The picture of Lovén feeding digestive biscuits and water to the hungry child went viral back in September this year. Hope was taken back to the children’s home set up by Lovén in Nigeria. The shelter currently houses 34 children, all of them victims of Nigeria’s superstitious beliefs.

Hope has already received blood transfusion and is currently being treated for worms. Even though he is in a stable condition, Lovén fears that damage might have been inflicted in a psychological level:

“Being rejected by your own family must be the loneliest feeling a child can experience, and I don’t believe that anyone can imagine how that must feel like,” Lovén told Huffington Post.