Campaign Tackles Baby-killing Ritual in Nigeria

Gift, 2 years old, was condemned by her community when her mother died shortly after childbirth. Among some clans of the Bassa Komo people in Nigeria is a traditional belief that children who lost their mother during or shortly after children are evil.

Steven Olusola Ajayi, a Christian missionary, rescues children from communities that practice ritual infanticide, or killing babies that are perceived to be evil.

The Vine Heritage Home Foundation opened in 2004 in the outskirts of the Nigerian capital of Abuja as a shelter for so-called “evil children.”

The babies in the Vine Heritage Home Foundation in Nigeria have all been branded evil by their native communities.

Dominion, who is three weeks old, was brought to Vine Heritage Home Foundation in Nigeria after his mother died after giving birth. In Dominion’s community, children whose mothers during or shortly after childbirth as seen as evil.

Nine-month-old David is perceived to be evil because he is a twin.

Steven Ajayi takes care of 119 children who live at the Vine Heritage Home that he opened in 2004. It’s a shelter for children who have been branded as evil in their communities.

Steven Ajayi smiles with twin sisters Yauseh and Asana. The 10-year-old girls are the oldest set of twins living in Kutara village. Kutara was one of the first villages that ended ritual infanticide after Ajayi’s missionary work in the community.

Bature Dangana, the chief of Kutara village in the outskirts of the Nigerian capital of Abuja, encouraged his community to end ritual baby killings.

Ten-year-old twins, Yauseh and Asana, sit next to their mother, Zainabu. The girls are among the first set of twins in Kutara village in Nigeria allowed to live, instead of being killed.