This mother’s love turned an adopted child’s life around - then inspired a miracle. (VIDEO)

Jenny Bowen reasoned if love could turn around one child’s life, then why not more? It did – almost 170,000 and counting.

When Maya was adopted in 1997 by Jenny and Richard Bowen she was suffering from malnutrition, dysentery and parasites. Worst of all, without love, she was emotionally shut down.

Maya didn’t know how to smile, to love or be loved. The lessons children routinely learn from nurturing parents had passed her by. Because she hadn’t been held or talked to, her development had stalled.

It took a year of love to change that. A year of cuddles, of concentrated, restorative love.

Then, one day Jenny looked out into the garden and saw Maya smiling, laughing and playing. Her progress truly reflecting the power of love and the resilience of children.

If love can transform one child, Jenny reasoned, then why not more….

In 1998, named in honor of the many little girls who’d lost their families, and inspired by the Chinese adage, “women hold up half the sky” – Jenny formed Half the Sky.

Today, Half the Sky has become OneSky for all children, an international NGO that has transformed the lives of hundreds of thousands of marginalized children in Asia.

Twenty years later, the love that turned Maya’s life around, has touched the lives of tens of thousands more children.