Hope was only two years old when a photo changed everything.
In Akwa Ibom, Nigeria, he had been accused of being a witch. His own family abandoned him malnourished in the street, where he spent months without anyone daring to help him. Until Danish aid worker Anja Ringgren Lovén found him and gave him water in an image that spread around the entire planet. That gesture was the beginning of everything.
Lovén and her husband, lawyer David Emmanuel Umem, took him to Land of Hope, the foundation they founded for children in the same situation. There, Hope grew up, learned sign language because he is deaf, and discovered that he was also a talented artist and a great dancer. In 2025, he graduated from primary school with one of the highest grades in his class.
“Every day I look at him and feel very grateful”, Lovén wrote. But she also remembered the thousands of girls and boys like Hope who will never have that second chance. For them, she says, the fight goes on.