Let's take a look at the comparison of these two photos, and if I don't say otherwise, can you imagine that these two children are the same person?
The two photos were taken a year apart, and so much happened in a year.
This child's name is hope, which means hope in English. The photo on the right was starving to death, and if he hadn't met the well-wisher Anja, he wouldn't have the photo on the left.
He was only two years old, what happened to him?
Hope's photo was posted online by a photographer in 2016, which sparked worldwide attention.
Hope is so popular in Africa that no one dares to approach him because he also has the name "Witch Boy".
According to local legend, witch children are children defiled by the devil, they are no older than ten years old, but they can bring deep suffering to the family and put everyone in crisis.
If anyone has a witch boy, it is a big thing, and he must be well "treated".
The "cure" method was to pour oil into his eyes and ears.
It is obvious how much this "treatment" affects children, and many children die under this inexplicable "treatment".
Some fathers even "treat" their children simply because they suspect they are witch children, resulting in the death of their children.
Since this treatment requires seeking the help of wizards, wizards are extremely expensive. Therefore, once the witch child is identified, many families will choose their own "treatment".
We say that tiger poison does not eat children, but they are killing their own flesh and blood.
Those who are lucky enough will be abandoned by their parents and left to fend for themselves, and most of these abandoned children will die.
Hope is a witch boy.
Hope was born in 2013, and in a family that already has many children, Hope's birth did not bring much joy to the family.
Since he was born, a lot of strange things have happened in the family, his father was inexplicably in a car accident, and his mother had her finger cut off while working, so people thought that there must be something wrong with Hope.
The family helped Hope find a wizard, and the wizard's answer poured cold water on everyone: "The child has been possessed by evil spirits, he is a witch boy." ”
It was Hope who was only two years old, but his presence would bring even greater disaster to the family, and his parents decided to throw him out of the house without asking.
Poor Hope knows nothing about the world, and he can only use his survival instinct to find all the food and water he can find.
No one wants to help him, because everyone is afraid of witch boys, and some people vent their own lives on this child.
He spends most of his time with garbage, because only there can you find food. By chance he is lucky enough to get food thrown at him by some kind tourists.
During these hungry days, Hope grew tenaciously, but due to malnutrition, his body was very thin.
Luckily, he met Anja. That year, Anja and her husband David arrived, and Hope's life fortunes began to change.
On January 31, 2016, Hope hadn't found anything to eat for a long time. His belly was huge, but he had to be careful to avoid crowds because these people were full of disgust for him.
When Anja first saw Hope, he had thin limbs, obvious ribs, and dirty, and in his left hand he was holding a can that had been thrown away, and there might still be an unfinished drink in it.
Anja approached him carefully, perhaps sensing his kindness and trying to get closer to Anja.
This child was so miserable, his long-term wandering life made his body covered with various wounds, some of which were already inflamed and suppurated, and there were small insects crawling.
Anja had been doing the rescue work, and he knew from Hope's dry lips that the child was in desperate need of water.
She took a bottle of mineral water from the car, and Hope's eyes lit up instantly. He knew that water was life, and immediately reached the mouth of the bottle and began to drink water.
What a shocking scene. A blonde with tattoos feeds a child water like an angel, and the child is so pitiful and helpless.
Hope was so thin that Anja could easily pick him up. Anja did a lot of charity and knew that what she needed most than Hope now was the help of a doctor.
Hope's situation is so bad that his long-term wandering has left him covered with all kinds of bugs. He was dying and had congenital hypospadias.
No one knows how long he'll live, but Anja must do her best. The child's treatment fee was so high that Anja had no choice but to post photos of her meeting with Hope online.
The photo was so shocking that a local charity soon sent Anja a $1 million donation.
Perhaps Hope's life is not destined, he broke free from the embrace of death and returned to the world.
Anja also knows that Hope was abandoned by her parents because she was suspected of being a witch boy. She hated it, but there was nothing she could do. This is a land full of ambiguity, and throwing away a child who will drag down the family is also a helpless choice.
But parents who throw away their children never think about the future fate of their children, they only know that they have no burden.
After Hope was discharged from the hospital, Anja and her husband dressed him up and named him Hope, hoping that their children's future would be promising.
Anja heard about African witch children when she was in college, and she made a documentary in 2008, but she didn't expect that she would actually set foot on this land and save a large number of children called witch boys.
When Anja came to Africa in 2013, this is a completely different world from developed countries, and who would have thought that they were all under the same blue sky?
She saw the wizard tie up a witch boy and pour oil into his eyes.
The parents of the children are watching, and in their minds it is good for the child and the whole family, but they do not know that it will harm their child.
Anja is Danish. Although she was born in a wealthier country, she grew up in family quarrels.
Anja's father was an alcoholic who came home late every night and quarreled with his mother when he got home. When the monitor saw that his father was drunk, he knew that the family was going to be restless again.
In her family, her father is the absolute authority, no one can disobey her father's will, and every time his father comes home from drinking, it is always her or her mother who is beaten.
When Anja was 15 years old, her mother died of illness, which caused Anja great pain, and she thought about suicide several times. But she couldn't. She needs to live well because that's what her mother expects.
When she saw all this in Africa, she thought about her childhood, and what was the difference between all their experiences and what happened to her as a child?
She was lucky again, when her father was drunk as a child, she always had her mother cover her fist from her father. But these children, who are defined as witch children, their parents can be so indifferent.
Anja tries to rush to rescue the child, but is stopped by David.
David knows all this very well, Anja will not save these children at all, but will put herself in crisis. He must make Anja understand what is going on with African witch boys.
Under David's explanation, Anja realized that what she saw was just a drop in the ocean. In this ancient land, there are such terrible scenes everywhere.
She decided to start a rescue organization to help the children abandoned by their parents find a way to survive. Before she met Hope, she had rescued 34 of the same children.
In 2016, Anja heard that a witch boy had been abandoned by his family and had been wandering outside for eight months, so she drove with David to find it.
This witch boy is HOPE. And with the release of her and Hope's photos, African witch boys have finally begun to enter people's eyes.
These poor children are nothing more than victims of local power struggles, and those who are powerful care about the life or death of their children, they only care about their own rights.
There are even people who will collect these witch children who have been thrown away by their parents and sell them to make money.
Anja's Witch Boy Shelter was named Land of Hope, and Hope was the 35th child at the center.
With Anja's help, he has undergone urethral transformation surgery and looks no different from a normal child.
On February 4, 2017, Hope started school with her school bag on her back. It was as if the two had just met and taken a picture of Anja feeding him water.
Compare these two photos, one living in heaven and one living in hell.
Hope is already sensible, and he sometimes looks at the photo of his first encounter with Anja, looks at the photo, and laughs happily.
He was a very forgiving child and didn't think it was a mistake for his parents to abandon him. There was no hatred in his heart, only gratitude for Anja.
This is Africa today, and this extreme poverty and ignorance have caused the profession of witch to proliferate. People have no choice but to listen to them in the face of difficulties.
Universal education is essential if poverty and backwardness are to be lifted out of the city, or children like Hope will never be saved.
By 2022, Anja's Land of Hope has saved more than 300 children and given them a whole new life.
Hope fully demonstrated his talent for painting, and some even praised him as the future Picasso. His paintings were also auctioned for charity, giving him the ability to support himself.
He and Anja's children also became good friends, and both enjoyed playing soccer and often competed together.
On March 6, Anja posted a recent photo of Hope, where he reached out and compared the victory symbol, no different from the average child.
The photo was taken on a sunny day, with Anja smiling and looking at Hope. She and Hope have known each other for six years and have long considered them their own children.
But as Anja said, it is almost impossible for her to truly solve all this on her own. Only when education is widely carried out on this land will everything become better.