Akwa Ibom’s ‘Witch’, Graduates From Primary School!

By Charles Igbo

He is a walking miracle. The boy named Hope. He was given the name  by a good Samaritan who rescued him.

In 2016, precisely on January 30, an anonymous two-year old was picked, as he roamed, stumbling, the streets in Akwa Ibom State. He  was all bones. A walking skeleton. He could neither stand properly nor walk properly. He was a bundle of bones.

Branded a witch, and so, stigmatized, he was pushed out of what was his home by his cruel parents relations and an uncaring society to die  unmourned, fed upon by vultures.

He had been branded a witch. And so unwanted. The poor innocent two-year old was branded a bundle of badluck; a bundle of everything bad, everything evil. So, he was pushed out to starve to death. For months, he roamed the streets.

But fate and destiny had something else in stock for him.

As he lay dehydrated, malnourished, and at the gate of death, the attention of a Danish Aid Worker, Anja Ringgren Loven, married to an Akwa Ibom man, David Emmanuel Umem, was drawn to him. She runs a  Children’s Education and Development Foundation (ACAEDEF), aka, “Land of Hope”.

When her attention was drawn to the boy, she went with her team, which included her husband, and evacuated the two-year old from the streets to the Land of Hope. He was named Hope, a name derived from the alias of the Foundation.

Nobody could forget the haunting photograph taken of the boy on the day of his rescue as the Aide Worker gave her water from a bottle to drink – obviously, the only clean water he had since he was branded a witch and pushed to the streets to die.

But Hope was meant to live. Since that January 30, 2016, he gradually thrived as he was nursed back to good health. His rescuer picked his every bill, and put him in school as soon as he was of age. This last July, the handsome, healthy, bubbling but deaf (because of what he suffered) Hope graduated from Primary School and is headed to Secondary School  in September.

Celebrating Hope on his Primary School Graduation  Day, Ms. Loven wrote in a post on August 25:

“Hope survived. He graduated this year and starts Secondary school next month. His story is world famous. And everyday I look at him and feel so grateful for his incredible development.

“If you get to know Hope, you are lucky because he is so very unique. Hope is deaf, but despite that, he is able to communicate using sign language.

“Hope graduated Primary School with one of the highest grades. Not only is he intelligent, he is a very talented artist, an excellent dancer, he is very warm and caring, and on top of that,  he has a great sense of humor.

“All the above makes me happy, but some days, it makes me think about the thousands of “Hopes” out there who we will never get to know because their lives are short. Once a child is accused of being a witch, it’s the end.

“But we will never give up. It’s an uphill battle, but with your support to Land of Hope, we will continue to save lives.”