The remarkable tale of EMMA THOMPSON’S ADOPTED SON
The British actress adopted a Rwandan boy soldier and now he’s changing the lives of others
It reads better than any movie script – a boy soldier escapes his war-ravaged country, is adopted by a famous couple and then spends his life helping other refugees. But it isn’t a story Hollywood dreamed up – it’s the tale of Tindyebwa Agaba Wise, who was adopted by actors Emma Thompson and Greg Wise.
Born in wartorn Rwanda, Tindy, 33, survived incredible trauma at a young age, including the death of his father from AIDS when he was nine.
When he was 12, militia stormed his village to kidnap its children, including Tindy and nine others – it was the last time he saw his three sisters.
He would then go on to live at a prison camp, where he was brainwashed and trained as a child soldier, before he escaped to London at age 16 with the help of a charity worker from Care International.
‘He knows more than his fair share of death and grief’
Sadly, he ended up living rough on the streets of London before a chance meeting with Emma at a Refugee Council event. Initially suspicious of her interest, Tindy gradually accepted her invitations for dinner at her North London home with her husband Greg and her two-year-old daughter Gaia, now 20.
Years later, Emma and Greg informally adopted Tindy and he moved into their house, going on to complete two university degrees – in politics and human rights law – as well as learning to speak eight languages.
He has now landed a job with a specialist arm of the Metropolitan Police, helping refugees just like him. Greg and Emma, 54, couldn’t be prouder of their “remarkable son”.
Greg, 54 says, “He is an absolutely extraordinary young man and he, of course, knows more than his fair share of death and grief, having been a child soldier captured by the [Rwandan militia group] Interahamwe and then managing to escape.”
Emma adds of “adopting” him, “You need family. I think we don’t talk enough about the happiness that it gives you to find new connections with strangers and people who aren’t familiar to you.”