In front of hundreds of people including state leaders, Xiao Mu, 14-year-old
girl orphaned by AIDS, suddenly wept while talking about the killer disease, and
the discrimination she had suffered.
Living in a poor southwestern village in Guizhou Province, Mu lost both her
parents suffering AIDS in 2001, and has lived with her elder sister and younger
brother ever since. They three are not infected with the virus.
"Life plummeted to the bottom when the news spread in the village that my
father had caught AIDS," said Mu, her voice lowered, "every one turned away from
my family."
"Me and my younger brother became horrible disease carriers in others' eyes,
and ... we lived a life that was lonely, bitter, and hopeless," she said.
But Mu was not alone for the pain. Nearly 80,000 children in China today were
orphaned by AIDS, with still many others living with chronically ill parents,
according to health experts' estimation.
Children affected by AIDS in China are usually living with a impoverished
family, poor mental health, and facing strong social stigma, said Li Qimin,
deputy director of China's National Committee for the Care of Children.
The Committee organized a six-day summer camp in Beijing this week, inviting
70 children affected by AIDS, including Xiao Mu, from across the country to live
temporarily with ordinary Beijing families to get a feel of "the warmth of a
home".
Mu was asked to deliver a speech, which she almost wept through, on the
opening ceremony, attended by senior officials including Gu Xiulian,
Vice-Chairperson of the Standing Committee of National People's Congress,
Vice-Minister of Health Wang Longde, and some health experts.
For the following days, temporary Beijing parents took these kids to visit
museums, zoos, eat Kentucky fried chicken, and buy clothes in modern shopping
malls.
When Xiao Mu showed up at the hotel on the last day of the camp, she was all
smiles, wearing a fashionable girl's T-shit and playing happily with her friends
from the Beijing family.
"I am happy here, and my biggest gain of the trip was that I saw the dinosaur
(taxidermy)," she said, adding that she would like to study in a Beijing high
school after she graduated from junior middle school at home.
Li Qimin said it was the third summer camp of the kind. According to Li, when
they host the first camp two years ago, nearly 40 hotels refused to accommodate
the kids, though all of them were healthy.
"I am pleased to see that more than 70 Beijing families showed up
volunteering to provide their homes for accommodation this time," he said.
"But the change is not a big one," Li sad, adding that about a dozen families
had changed their minds ahead of the event and the hotel accommodating these
kids for the first night insisted that reporters shall not reveal the name of
the hotel, fearing it might discourage prospective customers.
Li said they once thought of taking in a small number of infected kids to the
camp but soon withdrew the idea. "The Chinese society lack tolerance for that.
There probably will be no host families then," he said.
China's estimated number of people living with HIV/AIDS is 650,000, with most
being infected by contaminated blood or by intravenous drug taking. AIDS had for
years been a specter in China, being seen as a disease stemming from "immoral
conduct" due to lack of knowledge.
In February, China's State Council issued a set of detailed regulations on
AIDS, banning discrimination and requesting provision of free treatment and
testing from local governments.
Li said though the state guarantee free education for each children,
AIDS-affected kids, especially those being infected, are usually reported to
drop out either for health reason or pressure from fellow students' family
deriving from discrimination.
Children sufferers of AIDS are almost unwanted, said Xu Wenqing, the health
official with UNICEF China. "Many AIDS orphans experienced the painful course of
watching their family members being killed by the disease one by one, and then,
they become the target of discrimination."
According to Beijing host family's feedback this year, nearly 20 families
said the kids they accommodating were with few words, and two families said the
kids were bad-tempered.
"Not until 2001 that we realized these kids were a big problem in China's
fight against AIDS," Xu said, "and UNICEF's experiences tell that we should
offer assistance as early as their parent got sick."
She said an early counseling for the kids to deal with sick
parents and protect themselves from discrimination are crucially important,
"otherwise, the results would be hard to imagine."
