What is wrong with the child here? What is wrong?
- The child? - Yes.
- It's hungry. - Can we give the child some food?
No food, no water.
The picture of rescuing Hope changed my life.
It was like a blow in your face.
The whole world suddenly put their eyes on our work.
That is something we have been fighting for for years:
look at Nigeria, at the children being accused of witchcraft.
I felt at one point that...
let me just go back to Denmark, live a normal life
and just...
forget about everything.
I wanted to just hide myself actually.
My name is Anja Ringgren Lovén,
I am 44 years old.
I like to call myself a humanitarian or a social worker.
I grew up in the North of Denmark.
I lived with my mom, my twin sister and our senior sister.
My dad was an alcoholic so that's why my mom left him.
I was the girl who was trying to rescue the world
and it started when I was very young, trying to rescue my dad.
But how can a child help an old man
who chose to drink like that?
When my mom was making dinner
and my twin sister and I would not eat all the food,
she would tell us: "If you don't finish eating your food,
you should think of all the children in Africa starving."
My dream from when I was only six, seven years old
was to go and help children in Africa.
You know, David Jr.,
you always say you want to be a football player,
but I know you like dancing and music.
Maybe you could be a musician or a dancer?
My mom died when she was only 53 and I started feeling so much anger.
After she died, you know, I struggled to find my own identity.
I struggled with anxiety, weight loss.
I was in a hospital for three months.
I was just weighing 45 kilos.
I decided to sell everything I had in Denmark
to raise money.
That's why I became homeless. So I could help children in Africa.
Every Minister of Foreign Affairs in the whole world will write:
"Don't go to Nigeria, it's too dangerous."
Because this is a very poor country with extreme poverty
and people will do anything to survive.
But you need to face your fears in life
and that is something I have always done. Facing my fears.
Because if you don't, how can you live your life?
- Are you ready? - Yes!
- Are you ready?! - Yes!
Come on!
People here are so friendly, Nigerians are friendly.
They are peaceful people.
They just suffer from extreme poverty due to extreme corruption.
It is a pleasure to have these visitors with us here.
I'd like to invite Anja Lovén to come up
and greet the Church with Martyna.
I came from Poland.
This is in Europe. Yeah.
I travel all around the world to cover stories for television
about incredible and inspiring women
and now, a very important woman for me is Anja.
I came here to show her work.
I am from a very far country,
Denmark, in the north of Europe,
but my home is actually Nigeria.
- That's right. - Because...
my son, who is sitting there, is Nigerian.
His father is Nigerian, so I am Nigerian.
That's right!
And I am the founder of Land of Hope.
Our aim is to do advocacy in the local communities,
try to advocate that children are not witches.
Many members of Solid Rock have helped us rescue these children.
I'm so thankful to you and the Church.
Many people bring every situation under witchcraft.
Many people think that if your...
pepper plant or a mango plant do not yield,
it is because witchcraft is involved.
Maybe your plantain is not yielding because witchcraft is involved.
Witchcraft is present in every aspect of life.
It would be difficult
to do that with the members of my Church,
but it could be easy if a person is not enlightened.
They have many ways of manipulation.
This preacher had previously denounced this child
as being a witch.
Children are particularly targeted.
People believe that once possessed,
they can cast spells and contaminate others
and once accused,
a child is forever stigmatized and feared.
In 2008 I watched a documentary
called "Saving Africa's witch children"
and it shocked me,
because children accused of witchcraft
was something that I have never heard about.
There's around 10 thousand children accused every year in Nigeria,
so nothing could've stopped me from coming here.
So the first, let's say meeting I had
with the continent, with Africa,
was what we call "The warm heart of Africa,"
it is Malawi.
In my mind I had Nigeria,
but I wanted to gain some experience before traveling to such a dangerous country.
I was an observer, voluntarily.
My work was to live with a poor family in Malawi.
And one thing I'll never forget in Malawi...
All through my childhood, growing up
I have watched so many documentaries about African culture.
Everything I could watch or read, I did.
I thought I knew everything and what poverty meant
but what I didn't understand was what it means to be hungry.
What is hunger.
When I came back from Malawi, I was like,
"I want to establish my own NGO."
I want to focus on witchcraft accusations in Nigeria.
It's already dry, some of it is dry.
Let's take it inside.
This is still a little wet,
this is dry.
Okay, this is also dry.
Let's go and put it in the room, okay?
Can you see which one is this?
Prince? Okay.
So we'll put this in Prince's room.
This is Sunday's? Okay.
Oh girls, you're watching TV?
You know what? You should be outside, playing!
Victoria
Are you sick?
Did you see the nurse?
You've been taking the drugs? You're burning hot.
Ernest!
Tell me something about Anja.
She cannot hear it right now.
Sometimes she likes... Her hair before was black,
but now, her hair is white.
She likes dancing
and every morning she likes to drink coffee.
This is my lifesaver.
- For me half. - Half? Okay.
Oh, you're like my sister.
Black coffee only.
So now one, two, three, four... ten.
Mommy Anja, she helps children.
She does a lot of good things. She's the one that helped me.
Oh, Deborah. What?
My shoe...
Oh, your shoe? What do you want me to do?
- I want new ones. - You want new ones?
Yes, because you fixed these so many times.
Smile, you're getting new shoes.
She's unique.
For somebody to come all the way...
from a society that is now fully developed,
to come down to a place where life is totally different
and trying to bring...
hope and a totally different perspective,
trying to make a change.
I think she's very strong.
She's an angel.
- She's an angel? - Yeah.
This girl is fantastic.
When she came to Nigeria
I volunteered in a children's centre.
She didn't even care to look at me.
She was... a little hostile.
When I met David for the first time, I was so annoyed with him.
We were playing football.
Then suddenly he just walks in
and all of the children stopped playing
and ran to him: "Uncle David!",
and jumped on him. He would start talking with them.
I was just like: "Who are you?"
She was like: "I've been here for a week
and this guy is just coming and they love him, why is it like this?"
This is because I've been with them when they were kids
and they were almost six, seven years with me.
Imagine a young law student
who had charisma.
He was 21 and I was 32
and I came to rescue children,
no time for romance,
like "No, I can't do this."
One day, someone was trying to send a child away from there
and I was angry with that person
and I raised my voice.
I was very, very angry, defending that child.
Anja told me to calm down.
She looked at me for the second time and the third time.
After that day she came up to me and said: "Hello,"
and I said: "How are you?" We started talking.
It just happened like that.
The second time I came to Nigeria,
it was a month after my first trip,
and I came back
and David and I actually decided to get pregnant.
And after a month I was pregnant.
We just looked at each other and I was pregnant.
David and I established our children's centre
close to the university where he studied law.
So in the first years, we rescued around 30 children.
When we started, we slept on a mat in an uncompleted building,
just waiting for a rescue mission.
We rented some buildings
and that place was attacked
by local gunmen.
They came during the night with guns pointed at the staff and children,
they robbed all our properties and destroyed so many things.
Children were waking up screaming, running and hiding in the bushes.
That night some of these gunmen raped one of our girls.
It was a horrible attack.
And the reason why they could attack us
was that this place did not have a high fence
and we didn't have security like we have today.
That was the motivation for me to travel to Denmark
and just do a lot of work for fundraising,
so we could build Land of Hope.
David was here, making sure that the place was being built
and together we have created Land of Hope.
This is where all the boys live. We call it the "boys hostel"
and in the end here is the "girls hostel" where all the girls are staying.
And where is your place?
My place is straight forward here
and it's in the same building as the boys' and the girls' hostel.
When we built this place
our idea was to build a room
with our own kitchen and our own TV room,
so we could have some privacy.
- And? - We ended up just having a room.
Oh, so this is your private space?
This is my private space.
Is this room different from the other ones?
No, this room is actually the same as the children's rooms,
with a private bath and toilet.
When I'm here, I'm not indoors much.
I'm more outdoors and I don't like to be just in my room.
Who's here?
Hello?
How are you?
Of course, mama's room is always the best.
Anja, what's that?
It's just been the new year's,
so I had to wear something special for the new year.
I have to see what it looks like on you.
Like this, and we danced all night long.
- Very elegant. - Let me show you this one.
This is from a local tailor here, in Africa.
This is amazing.
One of my favourite dresses. Very colourful.
See? They sewed it so well here.
You need to have your breasts up and your booty in the back.
So you like fashion?
Because it's so hot here,
I can wear one dress and after one hour it gets too hot
and I'd wear another dress.
Anja, you know what I think?
That here, inside of these walls,
all of you can feel very safe,
but outside the world isn't like this.
Yes, inside Land of Hope it's pure happiness and love.
Outside of these walls,
that's where the world is going crazy.
One day David said: "I got a phone call this morning.
There's a two-year-old in a village."
But I don't even know if it's true,
like can they abandon a two-year-old and can this child even survive?
Then I looked at David and I said: "Let's go and check it out."
- No one is feeding the child? - Yeah, no mother, no father.
Oh, I'm sorry.
And I bent down to give Hope some water and biscuits.
The smell...
it was like the smell of death.
Like it was...
I can't explain this smell.
While we were walking with him to the bus,
the man said: "Where are you taking him?"
So I had to walk faster and then suddenly,
the bus that we came with was surrounded with people.
So David came and interfered:
"Have you seen the health of this child?
Have you seen he needs a hospital?"
He just slammed the door and said: "Let's move."
When she held the boy, she told me:
"David.
This boy is gonna die.
And before he dies, he needs to have a name."
So we named him Hope, took him to a hospital
and the doctor said that he had a very small chance of survival.
The breath of Hope,
we were counting it in seconds.
He was truly someone who was about to die.
David and I brought David Jr., our son, to the hospital
and put him in a bed with Hope, so they could sit and play together.
That was the first time we saw Hope smiling and even laughing.
That's why I call his survival a miracle.
But when I think of Hope, I laugh.
Because of his intelligence,
because he's someone with such a funny character.
He's so funny.
I also have a little concern
that he will never be able to talk.
I think that he really wants to express himself
and I hope that this day will come.
Land of Hope is a very big children's centre.
It's more than three acres
and David and I, when we bought the land,
we had this vision of not only making it a children's center,
but also to build an educational centre
where children could learn different traits.
Art class, physics,
computer training.
This is where we sing and have lots of fun.
One, two, three...
go!
I love you!
This is why I'm always so emotional.
I just think about how we rescued them
and watching them stand with so much courage
and just singing, believing in themselves.
Now they're young women empowering each other.
That's just so amazing.
Wow, I have goosebumps, you know?
I love this, yeah.
If you look at Denmark, even Poland and Europe
and go back to the 1700s,
we were all accusing, especially women.
In Denmark, we burnt more than 2000 women alive,
accusing them of being witches.
So why are we not burning women alive in Denmark now?
Because we started sending children to school.
It gives you the therapy.
Therapy is what heals you.
So art is just like self-expression.
It could be creativity,
it could be your imagination. What are you thinking?
What kind of concepts do you have?
One Nigerian child had one dollar per year
to pay the school fees.
So it was just a joke
to see how they were funding education for children.
And that's also the problem about superstition and about poverty.
If children are not being sent to school,
there won't be any development
and it's heartbreaking to see
how much talent is being wasted in this country.
Hope has such a strong meaning for me.
H-O-P-E, because?
Help One Person Every day.
So it couldn't have been any other name
than Land of Hope.
Hi! What do we have here?
Every time they are playing football, our nurse is here.
They play as if it was a matter of life and death.
You'll be fine, David.
Can you recognize every kid here and call them by their names?
All of the children.
I don't even need to see them to recognize who they are.
I know them by their voices.
You even have your own water?
Yes, we have our own water production company.
David, my husband, always had this dream of having that.
He wanted to produce water that's cheaper
and more accessible to everyone.
Land of Hope is like Noah's Arc.
We have chickens, we have fish
and a big area where we grow vegetables
and different kinds of leaves
that we use in local dishes.
So it almost became what we have dreamt about,
because by building all of this, you can actually survive.
This is David's family's home village.
Everyone in the community respects him very much,
meaning we are safe here.
When we built Land of Hope,
we hired 150 local workers.
We gave jobs to all of these people,
so Land of Hope is the pride of this village.
When I'm in Denmark, I miss Nigeria
and when I'm in Nigeria, I miss Denmark.
So I feel like I have a foot in each country
and every day I feel divided between these two countries.
Denmark is where I do administrative work,
interviews, people also book me for conferences.
That's very important for us.
To have a platform for me to talk about our work and get donations.
Because we need money
to rescue children and to give them a future.
I am the one who has to go back to Denmark and raise funds,
so it's a huge responsibility on my shoulders.
It made me really proud of her
that she has such a big heart for Nigeria and Nigerian people.
I haven't had any holidays in three years.
I didn't have time for it, so I'm really looking forward to it.
- So much. - Me too.
I work for Anja at Land of Hope.
I am the vice president
and I handle all of our communication,
marketing and social media.
I feel like I have to take care of her
because my mom told me to.
But I think it was also because she saw that we were different.
Anja was more like: "Here's a pool. Let's jump in."
And I was more like: "But how deep is it?
Let's figure that out before we jump in."
Anja would just jump in.
Even though I know she was raised here,
and we're Danish and we live in Denmark,
I feel that when she goes to Nigeria,
she's being herself the most.
Sometimes if Anja and I have an argument,
because we're twins, we work together,
so we argue about loads of stuff.
If I'm mad at her and I go out, people say to me:
"I love your sister."
I'm like: "Oh no, she's not so great."
She's not so perfect.
From the outside it looked as if we had a lot of success,
but behind the scenes, we were really struggling.
But we kept the focus on the project and on the children.
The children accused of witchcraft,
when they see you, they don't want to come up to you.
They feel like every adult is a danger.
They don't believe you. They've faced a lot of threats
from adults
who came to beat them,
sometimes even kill them. So they see every adult as a threat.
So I always have to convince them that I'm trying to do something good.
Here, in Land of Hope we have 91 children
and only 21 of them are girls. The rest are boys.
Why are boys accused of being witches more than girls?
Because boys tend to have a more dominant character,
like they're rough playing. And they're not needed.
Boys are not needed in the household.
I remember in 2019, it was around Christmas,
it was December. You're always in this special mood then.
There was an emergency call.
David came to me and said:
"I don't know if you want to see this child
but there is an information that he's in a very poor condition."
I was like: "Let's go!"
When we came and we saw the child,
he couldn't even walk.
It was a boy. He was in so much pain.
That is Saviour.
He was raped multiple times and he's also diagnosed with HIV.
He was hiding in big pipes
along a building construction site.
When we took him out of the pipes
he was holding up his pants
and the pain he was in was terrible.
- Did they killed your sister?
And he would have been killed
one or two days after if we didn't come.
He wouldn't be alive.
We took Ernest with us, one of our oldest children.
We sometimes take some of our children on rescue missions.
They love to come and help us
and that's so inspiring for me.
The way Ernest took that child gently into the car,
sat with him in the back, gave him something to drink,
gave him biscuits,
and then David was playing a Christmas song.
We were so emotional.
So on the way back, he put on this gospel Christmas song
and I turned around and looked at Ernest sitting with Saviour
and I started crying, because it was just so emotional.
But it was Christmas and we saved a life,
so that might have been the best Christmas ever, actually.
Do you remember the moment when Hope was here for the first time?
Hope was very little and tiny when he was rescued.
When they brought him to Land of Hope,
it was very sad because of the state he was in.
He was literally dying,
so it was very sad.
And now, what do you think about Hope?
Hope is the most... I don't know.
I think he's the happiest little kid in the world.
Because...
His transformation is amazing.
He's healthy now, he's in a perfectly safe place,
so yeah, Hope is doing good now.
He's very smart.
What we know about Hope is what we know from the father.
He's a sorcerer, he's a witchcraft doctor.
And he's someone with big influence.
The first thing he asked me was: "How much do I owe you?"
I told him: "You don't owe me anything,
I don't want any money.
We are here because every child deserves to know their identity."
He was saying that it's the mother's fault.
He was telling us one side of the story.
We have been looking for Hope's mom since we found him.
It is very important for Hope to meet his mother.
To see and meet her.
And it's important for her.
She needs to realise that children are not witches.
What is your opinion, David, about this meeting? With the mom.
I don't know what to expect. I have to see her first.
She told me she was there, waiting for us in that place.
I just called her again,
a minute ago, and the phone was switched off.
As far as I know, for all of you in Land of Hope,
it's important that kids would have a relationship with their parents.
When we go on home visits,
it is when we are actually doing advocacy.
We are there to educate.
Not just the family, but the whole community.
So this was the guy who contacted David
to inform us about a child that was abandoned,
of only two years old. He is the one.
For almost 10 years now we have been very active in the local villages.
We actually have many ambassadors.
They know who we are and they'd call us.
They are actually our eyes and ears.
- When was the last time you saw her? - Yesterday morning.
Right now, they're saying that she left the village,
but we're trying to find out where we can find her.
Even though the sun is shining, there are kids everywhere,
suddenly the situation can change completely
and turn into something dangerous.
A month ago, when we were in one village,
we rescued a child. Two of his friends were butchered.
Butchered means that they were chopping off heads,
arms, that's how they butcher children.
They just kill them with an axe or a machete.
We visit this village's head
to let him understand why we're there,
so we are working with the community.
Is there many children accused of being witches here?
No, yes, there is.
Why are they branding children as witches?
They're behaving weird and before,
they were dying a lot.
But it doesn't happen since I am here.
How do you do it?
We have a special mixture.
Kids vomit after drinking it and then they are healed.
How much are the parents paying for the drugs?
- One million. - No one here has one million naira.
Isn't it too expensive?
If the parents don't have one million naira,
they give me some land of the same value.
So what if the parents don't have any land,
they don't have any money?
Will they abandon the child or what happens?
There's an option
of serving me.
Do you have any children that are your servants now
because the parents weren't able to pay?
Go and bring the child.
What are you doing now, here? Do you help the chief?
I do whatever he wants.
Bring him whatever he needs.
Okay, but do you get money for it?
I only get to eat for free. My money goes to him.
This is what we call slavery. When you work hard for 15 years
and you only get food for that.
It is very easy to manipulate people who aren't educated.
They tend to believe everything that they are told,
especially from a pastor,
because religion is a very big part of Nigerian life.
The pastors are taking advantage of the ignorance of the people
and they would tell them that children are witches
and they believe it.
Promoting witchcraft
you have a really easy way to rob people.
Many pastors never accepted me
to their Christian organisations here, in this city.
When I have been preaching
that witchcraft has had nothing to do with God for years.
Our own statistics
show that around 10 children disappear in a week
from a village.
You should understand that accusing a child of being a witch
is actually related to extreme poverty.
The families can't feed all of the children they have.
So if there's an opportunity to send children out,
accusing them of being witches, it's less mouths to feed.
So it's also a way of surviving.
You know. So...
It's not easy to come up with a number,
but it's many children.
Even one would be enough. One child being killed is enough.
The child knows, by growing up in this society,
that: "If I'm accused, there's no way that I would survive."
So the children try and escape.
Children on the streets are prone to all of those things.
Prone to trafficking,
they are prone to harvesting of the organs,
they are prone to different kinds of abuse. I must say,
any female child that sleeps on the street for one night
is raped.
I ran away, so I started begging on the street.
They accused me of killing my father.
They used to beat me every morning.
They didn't give me food. My mother burnt me with an iron.
What do you feel when you think about those people?
I think that we should forget about everything that happened in the past
and move on.
All children here have experienced awful things.
Cuts on their heads, knife wounds, they are there.
Every child has something they will carry for the future.
Sometimes they will keep a child locked in chains.
Then the child is in a room without anything to eat or to drink
until they admit that they're witches.
You're also a witch?
Yes.
My name is Benjamin.
My parents accused me of being a witch.
What do you think about this situation right now?
What I think is that when I finish my school,
I'm going to teach people
in the village that nobody's a witch.
The issues started in my family, because I was going to school.
So my extended family accused my father of being a witch.
That it wasn't normal that he had so much interest in education.
That there has to be something else, it has to be witchcraft.
So where all of the issues started.
When you get accused,
everyone sees you differently.
Even the ones that you're related to.
When my father was accused of being a witch,
he got kind of kicked out of the extended family.
So I think then the issues started coming.
People started to be very aggressive to us,
to the point of beating my mom.
So it got to the point of physical attacks.
It was very dangerous.
- And what happened to your dad? - They killed him.
They killed him
and that was when Land of Hope came.
Our life today is a reflection of childhood.
I see that now in so many ways.
I was very excited about meeting Hope's mum for the first time.
How does she look? How will she react? How will Hope react?
A lot of emotions came to us,
because suddenly she was there and Hope was very emotional.
Hi.
Good morning, welcome.
So what's your name?
My name is Justina.
How old are you?
I'm 23.
You were... 14, 15 years old
when you were pregnant with Hope?
Yes, 15.
So what happened?
Can you tell us why we found him the way we found him?
Tell us the story.
We are here, because we want you to have a relationship with your son.
We are not here to judge you, okay?
You were still a child yourself.
Did he marry you or did he just take you as a wife?
What was the story between you and him?
Because he's an old man.
I don't know, he came to us.
He asked me out and I refused. I didn't want to.
You didn't like it?
I did not and he forced me that day.
Steven was born a year before I gave birth to Daniel.
So you decided to name him Steven? Was it also with Hope's father?
- Yes. - When he was rescued,
we didn't know his name and nobody told us his name,
so we needed to give him an identity.
We chose the name "Hope" for him.
That's so good.
Was it Hope's father who left him there?
In that condition?
Yes, he threw him out in that place.
Don't be angry with me.
Don't worry. You are here now and that's what's important.
This is your son.
Hope, your mom.
You were in her belly.
How are you?
He does not hear very well.
I'm sorry. I'm very sorry. For all those things, I'm sorry.
Where's the mark? I want to see the mark.
Here is one.
- That's the mark you gave him? - Yes.
I'm sorry, okay?
Please, you have to forgive me.
Are you okay? Are you fine, Hope?
Okay?
Are you okay? No.
Hope might not understand.
He might think that you're here to take him.
-No -I know.
But we hope that you will come visit him many times.
- Are they similar, Steven and Daniel? - Daniel is taller.
He's taller than Hope?
I didn't want to interrupt you.
Hey, Hope.
Hey, my name is Martyna.
- Justina. - It is nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you. - You have a great son.
Right now, I can see that he's confused.
He has pride
and he knows how he was when he was found.
So there is happiness, but there is also...
maybe anger.
She's not staying.
She's going back, okay?
You stay here,
but she'll see this place, okay?
And then she goes, okay?
Maybe some day he will find a place in his heart to forgive me.
If you want to change the world, start with children.
If you can change how they grow up, you can actually change a generation.
Now it's time to look forward.
Hope is very happy to see his mom.
She has come back to visit us,
she has stayed at Land of Hope for a long period.
He was so happy.
He took her hand and with much pride, he was showing the other children:
"See? This is my mom."
You must learn to take the burden of others upon yourself.
As leaders we should take the burden of people that we're leading,
sacrifice for them.
Yeah, that's it.
Sacrifice.
I've known him for 10 years and I've seen him crying two times.
Finally, there was a closure in one of our biggest cases,
that is the story of Hope.
It has been not just blood, sweat and tears
for me and for him,
but also for our relationship and being parents.
One,
two,
three,
four... five!
You're cheating!
It has been a sacrifice.
When I became pregnant we had to consider
where do we keep our son
and also his security.
We had to put our project first
and I raised our son in Denmark,
because that is more secure and safer for him
and a better, healthier environment.
Also, sometimes I feel envy.
When I see couples on the streets walking with their children,
I wish I could do that every day with my son and his father.
Again, you want to see it again?
The truth is that I feel lonely most times when I'm in Denmark.
But when I look at the 92 children that we have now at my center,
children that were found inside bushes
and have been just thrown away
and children who were almost dying in our hands...
When I, today, see these children at university, graduating,
I could never regret my decisions.
It has been hard work, a big challenge in my life,
but in the end I'm so proud of that.
That is the fruit of all my decisions and I'm very happy for it.