On World AIDS Day tomorrow a national campaign will be launched
in China to help children in HIV/AIDS-stricken families enjoy
better living conditions, more love and a brighter future.
"The whole of society should help impoverished children, whose
parents are killed by HIV, regain a happy family life," said Huang
Qingyi, vice-president of the All-China Women's Federation.
Warm-hearted people should offer support to the thousands of
orphans most of who lived in rural and remote areas, Huang
said.
Huang made the remarks at a press conference for the campaign in
Kunming, capital city of southwest China's Yunnan Province, over the weekend.
The campaign, jointly sponsored by Huang's federation and the
Ministry of Health, aims to mobilize hundreds of "loving heart"
families to give their love to children affected by HIV/AIDS.
Vice-Minister of Health Wang Longde said that the Ministry of
Health would work closely with the federation to help orphans find
new families. These families would provide not only economic
support to help orphans have better medical care, education and
living conditions but also psychological assistance, Wang said.
The Ministry of Health and the United Nations estimated that by
last year China had 650,000 HIV/AIDS sufferers. There are now
nearly 80,000 AIDS orphans and the figure is expected to reach
200,000 by 2010, experts say.
Last year in 127 pilot areas where full care measures are taken
for HIV/AIDS sufferers, a total of 8,644 orphans were registered by
local governments, said Li Guoqiang, an official with the China
Work Committee on Care for Children. The main problems faced by
such children are loneliness, serious poverty, lack of confidence
and dim prospects for the future, Li said.
Li's committee, technically and financially supported by the
China office of the United Nations Children's Fund, started a pilot
project providing comprehensive care for HIV/AIDS-affected children
this April in Tongren of southwest China's Guizhou Province.
The committee and its branches at various levels enlisted the
help of nearly 10 million retired officials, teachers, experts,
doctors and many other well-educated people. The aim of the pilot
project was to encourage retired people and their families to
establish solid contact with orphans to assist them solve the
problems they faced, Li said.
"These retired groups have a lot of social experience, great
sympathy and various social sources which can be used to care for
these children," Li explained.
Currently the most popular way for the public to help orphans
was to give money, food or clothes "but it's far from enough," Li
said.
Xiao Fen, an assumed name for a 13-year-old girl whose parents
died of HIV/AIDS in 2002 and 2003 in Tongren, said that a retired
official helped her younger sister and brother and herself.
However, she said she'd received some money from the official
but only seen him once since April. "I know the telephone number of
his family but I've never tried it even if I feel lonely and
helpless," she said.
More efforts must be made to develop better methods to help
orphans have better communication with the families who also want
ideas on how to give more comprehensive care to children in
difficulty, Li said.
The central government has started to give all registered
orphans of HIV/AIDS families free education and other support
including food and money.
(China Daily November 30, 2006)