OOOM 100: THE WORLD'S MOST INSPIRING PEOPLE 2016

It was a story about inspiration that has been covered around the globe: OOOM’s first “OOOM 100: The World’s Most Inspiring people” list fascinated audiences throughout the world. More than 500 media outlets reported on OOOM’s ranking about exceptional individuals, pioneers, and visionaries who have inspired the world, including CNN, The Independent, India Times, LADbible, and the Australian Daily Examiner, among many others. Here is the top of the list:

If one could give courage a name then it would be Anja Ringgren Lovén. It was the beginning of the year 2016 when the Danish aid worker experienced an encounter in the middle of Nigeria that would change her life and that of a little boy forever. An encounter immortalized by the camera of her colleague, Martin Nilsson. It instantly became an historical document—a mesmerizing depiction of our times that instantly went around the globe and all who saw it went through a gamut of emotions, from disbelief, grief, and anger. It showed the world in all its raw, horrible, tragic reality, a world in which there is so much excess death it is often intensely silent and unnoticed—happening somewhere every minute, every second, and no one is looking.

The image that shook the world in 2016: A stab in the heart. (Foto: Martin Nilsson)

Ringgren Lovén was standing on a dirty street in front of a starving little boy. A so-called “witch child,” abandoned by his family, shunned, and rejected by the village community. It was almost a miracle that he was still alive. Thousands of children are abandoned every year in Nigeria because of the ancient superstitions that they practice witchcraft or have sinister powers. They are beaten, tortured and in many cases violently killed. She gave the poor, destitute little child a bottle of water and cookies. He was too weak to walk any further. It was at this moment that Anja’s colleague, Martin Nilsson, with his camera captured the image that went around the world.

Anja Ringgren Lovén did not hesitate and wrapped the dying child into a blanket and brought him by car to an aid station. “At that moment it was clear to me that I would do all in my power to try and keep this little fellow alive,” is how Anja Ringgren Lovén reflects on her actions today. She gave him the name Hope. With her relief organization DINNoedhjaelp (www.dinnoedhjaelp.dk), Anja is continually saving abandoned children from torture and sure death because of tragic age-old superstitions. She organizes schools that take these children and provide them with an education, and gives them food and a new, safe home in the orphanage she founded. Martin Nilsson posted the photo of Anja and the little boy, Hope, on the Internet where it immediately went viral and millions of people viewed it. People around the globe all asked the same question: In what kind of world are we living, where such unfathomable cruelties are being committed?

Hope survived and today lives in Anja’s Nigerian orphanage. He has managed to overcome his trauma to a great extent and owes his life to Anja Ringgren Lovèn, a woman who in 2012 sold everything she had to establish her humanitarian mission. “Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire,” is a saying from the Talmud. Anja Ringgren Lovén has saved our world.