When Emmanuel Kelly was a little baby he and his brother were found by nuns while inside a shoe box on the bleeding streets of Iraq. They were both born with deformities to a very young mother who didn’t know what to do and decided to abandon them.
The best thing the nuns could do was to get Emmanuel and his brother Ahmed into an orphanage.
In 1998, Emmanuel and Ahmed were adopted by Moira Theresa Kelly who ran the orphanage, and she brought them to Australia, provided them with medical care, and made them part of her family. Moira was not only their heroine, but also their mother.
Ahmed, whose legless and without arms and hands represented Australia at the 2012 Paralympic Olympics in swimming. Emmanuel was also born with a unique gift. He is a wonderful singer, and his family encouraged him to audition for the X Factor show while he was 17 years old.
Brave and determined, watch Emanuel perform a very moving performance for John Lennon’s song “Imagine”. His story moved the judges and the audience so much that there was no single dry tear remained in the hall.