Inspired Magazine

Top Anja cradles Hope
in a blanket before fleeing
with him to aid.
Top right Slowly, Hope
gained strength.
Right Anja helps scores
of children abandoned or
tortured in Nigeria.
Below right Anja with
her husband David
and son Junior.
OUTRAGE SPARKS QUEST TO HELP
Of course today wasn’t their first failure. In 3.5
years at this game, Anja had experienced her
share of devastation: times when they’d arrived
too late, the accused children already dead from
starvation, from exposure, or burnt alive, drowned
in rivers, hung in trees, hacked with axes. It was
her desire to stem such horror that brought Anja to
Nigeria. She’d been sitting in her home in Denmark
– one of the most peaceful countries in the world –
when she saw a documentary about the plight of
Nigerian children who’d been branded witches.
Appalled at what she saw assaulting her TV
screen, Anja knew she had to do something. She’d
already gained aid experience living in Malawi
for three months, and helping to rennovate a
village school in Tanzania. So she sold her every
possession to fund a trip to Nigeria where she’d
work at an orphanage for children accused of
witchcraft.
It was here she’d meet David Emmanuel Umem
who would go on to be her husband. David was
a Nigerian law student who’d been fighting for
human rights in his country since he was 15.
Burning with a desire to do more, and avoid the
corruption they’d witnessed at this orphanage, the
duo determined to open their own orphanage to
help the shunned witch-accused kids.
They eventually fundraised enough money to
buy a plot of land in 2014 that today houses 50
abandoned children in a hostel, with room for up
to 200. The orphanage, called Land of Hope, also
houses 10 staff and Anja, David and their son
Junior. Most of the orphanage kids are aged from
six to 18 years old.
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ANJA RINGGREN LOVEN