Captain Wen | Zhang
Editor| Captain Zhang
Six years ago, a video circulated on the Internet of a white woman squatting down on the desert of Africa, holding mineral water in her hand, feeding a skinny black African boy.
The boy struggled to raise his head and drink the water, his eyes full of helplessness.
The video went viral online, with many praising the kindness of the white woman and many more sympathizing with the situation of African boys.
In 2021, how is this white woman and African boy now?
01. Opportunity
The origin of the story begins with a kind girl from Europe.
Anja Ringgren Lovén was born in 1978 in the northern Danish city of Frederikshavn, and she also has a twin sister to a well-off family.
Anya
When she was a child, her dream was to travel around the world and meet all kinds of people in the world, so after graduating from high school, she decided to become a flight attendant and take a flight to see everywhere in the world.
In this way, in 2001, Anya entered the airline and began training.
There is a saying: "The sky has unpredictable storms, and people have bad luck and bad luck." Bad news came from home.
Anya's mother was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer, and the family desperately needed someone to take care of her seriously ill mother.
Due to the old age of her father and the fact that her sister had a job in the field, the filial and filial Anya finally chose to give up the flight attendant training that had been carried out for 6 months and returned home to take care of her mother.
Unfortunately, although Anya took good care of her mother for more than a year, her mother eventually fell ill and left the world.
In 2002, Anya, who had been witnessing the slow death of her loved ones by the bedside, decided to move away from her hometown and live alone in Aarhus, a place where there was no sad past.
Far from the sad place, Anya did not forget her mother's departure, but it also made her realize that life was short, and the dreams that had been forced to give up in the past came to mind, yes! I'm going to save money to travel the world.
Anya found a job as a clothing salesman in the local area and quickly became a store manager with excellent ability.
By chance, she joined an international aid organization that travels to Africa every year to help children in need.
When Anya saw this opportunity, she naturally did not want to miss it; for her, on the one hand, she could help others, and on the other hand, she could travel around the world, which was the best of both worlds.
In 2009, she and the organization traveled to Malawi, Africa, on a three-month volunteer trip.
However, as soon as Anya, who had been full of expectations, stepped on the land of Africa, she was shocked by the scene in front of her.
This and his hometown of Denmark are "two worlds"; the roads are full of loess, water is scarce, even food is insufficient, and children are hungry and frozen for a long time, and their lives are miserable.
In the process of doing public welfare, Anya gradually learned about the situation in Africa.
Volunteers told her that the environment in Africa was even more severe than she had imagined.
On the streets, houses were almost made of thatch, mud walls; tiny houses were crowded with seven or eight people, and parents with meager salaries could not afford to raise so many children.
They didn't have school to go to school, they didn't have food to eat, and the broken tires that popped out of the garbage heap were children's toys.
According to a survey in Which one person in every three people in Africa is malnourished, 38 per cent of African children are short in height and 28 per cent are underweight, according to UNICEF.
In addition, there is an old superstition here - witch children.
As a result of the ongoing wars in Africa, poverty and famine have left the local population in a state of disproportionate condition.
There were frequent struggles between local sects, and priests would use the traditional superstitions of the local people, "witch boys", to establish their authority and absorb believers.
What is a witch child?
In African countries, if a child is born and there are ominous signs or unfortunate events in the home, the priest will judge him as a "witch child", the embodiment of a demon, and the family will regard the child as a curse and a broom star.
Usually, families who give birth to "witch children" will ask priests to pay a high price to "cast spells and exorcisms".
But if the priest "fails to exorcise," or if the family simply does not have the money to exorcise the demon, the parents will be ruthless in throwing away their children.
The locals are actually not strange, and when they see the "witch children" wandering on the road, they will avoid it, for fear that they will provoke "obscurity" if they are close to this group of children.
In the past three months, Anya has watched countless children survive on the brink of despair from the process of volunteering, and the children's eyes are full of uncertainty and helplessness for the future, which makes her both distressed and unwilling.
Upon her return, people from the aid group told her that there were still many countries in Africa where children needed assistance, with children in countries such as Nigeria facing a worse plight.
When Anya listened, she thought about the bits and pieces of the three months she spent with the children in Africa, and immediately took out some of the money she saved when she was the clothing store manager and donated it to the organization to help these children.
For the next two or three years, she will take advantage of her free time to volunteer in Africa and raise money everywhere in Denmark, hoping to do her best to help African children.
With the deepening of the assistance, Anya feels more and more that african children need more care in order to get the children back on track and get back to the happy childhood that should have belonged to them.
In 2012, Anya founded the Charity Foundation, and the following year she resolutely quit her job as a clothing store manager, sold all her property, took the fundraising, and came to Africa with her friends to start her public welfare trip.
Over the next three years, they embarked on a journey to raise money online, joining many international organizations along the way to help out public welfare projects.
In 2016, Anya and her friends came to Nigeria.
This country is rich in pristine ecological natural landscapes, with vast deserts and grasslands. But the problem of food shortages and the abandonment of "witch children" has always been serious in this country.
Anya often saw abandoned children wandering on the side of the road, begging along the way, which made her unbearable.
Anya believes that children should not be treated this way, that every child is unique and that fate should not be decided at birth.
Whenever she saw a child rummaging through the garbage can on the street looking for food, Anya would silently wipe her tears from the side.
So she and her friends decided to help wherever they went, and whenever they saw children in need of help on the side of the road, they would stop and give assistance, and distribute the food in their backpacks to the children little by little.
02. Encounter
One day, Anya was passing near a street trash can and saw a skinny little boy, naked, feeling very thirsty, and his lips were cracked.
The boy limped to Anya's feet, looked up at Anya longingly with his big watery eyes.
Anya was touched in her heart, took out the mineral water, bent down, and fed the boy to drink.
When the boy saw the water, it was as if he saw a life-saving straw, and he immediately drank it.
Since he was so hungry that he could not grasp the water bottle with both hands, Anya was holding on to the side, while carefully telling the boy not to drink too quickly.
The other children and people next to her were booing, saying that the boy was a "witch boy" and telling her not to come near; Anya, who had learned a little in the local dialect in Africa, could understand what they were saying, but she ignored them.
The whole process was recorded by Anya's friends on the side with a mobile phone.
Anya carefully observed the boy, his skin was dry and his stomach was swollen, and Anya, who had been in Africa for many years, knew at a glance that this was because of the swelling of the abdomen caused by the long period of non-eating.
Looking at such a thin boy, Anya couldn't help but wet her eyes.
She took out the biscuits from her backpack, gave one slice to the boy to eat, and stuffed another slice in the boy's hand.
Anya's friend then urged her to get up quickly and head to her next destination.
Not long after leaving, Anya still turned her head and looked back uneasily, seeing that the boy was pushed to the ground by other older children, trying to grab the cookie in his hand, the boy grabbed it and refused to give it, twisted together, the cookie was finally snatched away, the boy cried, while also getting up to try to retrieve his own cookie.
Seeing this scene, Anya, the softest piece of her heart was touched, and at the moment she turned around and ran back to the boy, protecting him with her hands and not letting others bully him again.
Under an impulse, Anya's compassion was fully aroused, and she decided to protect the child forever.
As early as 2014, An An had become a mother and gave birth to a son, so seeing the situation of the little boy like this, it was even more motherly love.
Many years later, in an interview with the British "Mirror", Anya said:
"When I saw him [the African boy], I thought of my son."
So on that day, Anya actually couldn't take care of so much, she thought, at least she could take good care of the boy during her time in Africa, and then make plans for things later.
Anya took the boy back to the charity for a bath, changed the boy into clean clothes, and then took him to the hospital for initial treatment.
After a doctor's diagnosis, it was confirmed that the boy was severely malnourished and suffered from a variety of diseases.
The doctor told Anya with a serious expression that the boy was in a critical condition, his life was in danger at any time, and he must be hospitalized immediately.
Judging by the appearance, the boy's age is about one year old, but the weight of a boy at this normal age should come to 20 pounds, but the boy is not even 10 pounds, and his height is only 50 centimeters, which is sour.
"We don't know if he'll survive." - Anya
With the help of the charity, the boy was soon taken to the hospital for aggressive treatment.
Among them, the boys underwent surgery such as deworming and other treatments, and the operation was very successful.
Then Anna took care of the boy during his hospitalization, bathing and nursing hard, and in the eyes of outsiders, they were like a mother and son.
Under Anna's care, the boy's cheeks slowly became rosy, and his body began to recover, and flesh grew, anna was very relieved to see.
Gradually, she develops feelings for the boy, who also depends on Anna as a mother.
So Anya made a big decision to adopt the boy.
In addition, she knows that there are more children in Nigeria who have the same fate as boys, so when she finishes caring for boys, she has the idea of staying local and "saving more children".
Anna named the boy "Hope" and Chinese "Hope", hoping to bring "hope" to everyone through the boy's story.
With Anya's help, the little boy grew and grew stronger, becoming a cute boy with a good health, no different from the average child of the same age.
Hope
Hope loves school and is very smart.
Anna took care of Hope as her own son and even sent him to learn to draw.
"He is very talented in art, and many of his paintings have even been sold."
Anna said proudly:
"We call him our little Picasso."
Hope once saw the skinny paintings he had when he was found, but he never felt sad, but often pointed to the pictures and smiled.
Surrounding workers said when interviewed:
"He seems to be proud, but I know it has nothing to do with pride. Children are born with the ability to forgive."
Perhaps in Hope's small heart, he has long given up the hatred for his parents' abandonment, and now he is very happy to be taken care of by Anna.
Shortly after Hope was adopted, friends put the video of the "water boy" on the Internet, which immediately caused a sensation on the global Internet, many people sympathized with the boy's suffering, and in the follow-up, everyone learned that the boy had been adopted by Anna, and they were also happy for him.
From time to time, well-meaning people from all walks of life will send daily necessities and school supplies to Hope in Africa.
Now that Hope has become an optimistic child, the local charity originally wanted to find out Hope's biological parents, but there was no news for several years.
Hope is back on the track of life, and everyone is relieved, especially Anna, who is behind the scenes.
After adopting Hope, Anna decided to open a charity shelter with friends in the local area to solve the problem of abandoned children in Nigeria due to the problem of "witch children".
03. Love is passed on today
Today Anna lives in Nigeria with Hope and is working for the common good and the children.
From time to time, Anna would also upload his and her children's recent situation to her social networking site to share with everyone.
She founded the Landofhope Foundation, built a house of hope there, and hosted African children abandoned by the so-called "curse."
Anna and her team have rescued more than 300 children and are currently the largest children's centre in West Africa, with a total of 76 children currently being rescued.
Girls as young as 9 years old.
Anna regards the children who come into custody as her own, and firmly believes that even if it is difficult, she can change the fate of many children.
Many African children are abandoned every year, and Anna can only do her best to "save one by one".
In fact, the superstition of witch children stems from the lack of local education, Anna said in an interview:
"Children, in turn, are treated as scapegoats and labeled witch children, and then they are usually treated as outcasts by village members."
She adds:
"Education is the most beneficial investment for society and the greatest weapon against ignorance".
Anna is planning to build a hope school in the area to help more children and give them a chance to be educated.
She believes that only the development of "education" can solve the superstition of "witch children".
"Our work is very professional. We need to help the villagers and change their mindset. --Anna
To this day, Anna continues to pay in Africa, even in the face of the 2020 and 2021 epidemics, we can still see Anna's local life with children on social platforms.
For Anna, genuinely helping the local children is what she really wants to do.
Compared with the hot "environmental protection girls" a while ago, the two are also from Northern Europe, but the environmental protection girls appear to be "high-spirited" and take their own high standards to demand others, but they have not done it.
Anna, on the other hand, pays silently by herself, truly from the heart like helping African children, and the two are in stark contrast.
Eco Girl
Anna's kindness is commendable, and some people may ask her if she doesn't dream of traveling the world?
But for Anna, perhaps she has found a dream even greater than traveling the world! Now she only hopes to be able to help more children.
Anna's social networking site continues to post about life in Africa
Life is precious, not easy to come by, no child can be easily abandoned, although the current rescue of African children is still very difficult, but we should never give up hope, there is hope can accomplish a lot of things, just like Anna gave the name to the boy, there is warmth everywhere in the world, I hope that more and more children can get out of a desperate life.
Ignorance and superstition are the most terrible, and it is not true that poor societies in rural Africa attribute all this to children, who bear what they should not have endured, which is really regrettable.
I hope that all children under the heavens can grow up safely and happily.
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