Yahoo – AFP, Benjamin Haas, 22 Dec 2014
China's
health ministry has promised to provide medical care and a living allowance for
an eight-year-old HIV-positive boy targeted by villagers for expulsion, state
media reported Monday, in a case that has drawn widespread condemnation.
Some 200
residents -- including the child's own grandfather -- signed a petition last
week to expel him from their village in the southwestern province of Sichuan to
"protect villagers' health", sparking anger online at perceived
prejudice and ignorance in the countryside.
Beijing has
now pledged to ensure the boy, dubbed Kunkun in the media, gets an education
after reports he was having trouble finding a school that would take him, the
China Daily said.
The health
ministry has also pledged to conduct spot checks around China to uncover any
other violations of anti-discrimination policies, the state-run paper reported.
The
provincial Communist Party committee is investigating reports of the petition
to expel the boy, the Global Times newspaper, with close ties to the party,
quoted an unnamed propaganda official as saying.
The boy was
left with his grandfather when both his parents quit the impoverished village
to seek work and remains in his grandfather's care in the village for the
present, the Beijing News indicated.
It was
unclear on Monday whether Kunkun would still face expulsion from the village.
Reactions
on social media have been swift to condemn the villagers who signed the
petition.
"It's
terrible that the villagers are undereducated, they should be sent to school
too," said one user on Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like microblogging service.
Another
commentator centred the blame on Kunkun's parents.
"It’s
strange that no one condemns the boy’s parents who are so irresponsible and can
be charged of abandonment crime in foreign countries," the user wrote.
The United
Nations said it was "deeply concerned" about the case, which has
prompted huge debate in China and highlighted the stigma attached to the virus
in a country where sufferers face widespread discrimination.
"Stigma
and discrimination are our biggest enemies in the fight to end HIV," the
UN said in a statement Friday.
"But
sadly, this week's reports demonstrate that breaching confidentiality,
ignorance and fear continue to have devastating consequences for those living
with HIV."
The child's
grandfather and guardian, Luo Wenhui, told the Beijing News on Saturday that he
had signed the petition to remove Kunkun because he "hoped that it would
make things better," as he would receive better care elsewhere.
Luo, who is
aged over 60, told the paper that he "did not have long to live" and
that the petition was suggested by a local journalist as a way of drawing
attention to his grandson's plight.
"We
are getting too old, and he is getting more naughty... we don't have the
ability to look after him," Luo said.
"If he
didn't live better outside the village, he could come back."
The Global
Times said the boy's mother left the family in 2006, while his father
"lost contact" after Kunkun's condition was diagnosed.
The boy was
reportedly referred to as a "time bomb" by villagers worried about
being infected and local children shunned him. Reports said Kunkun was born
HIV-positive through transmission from his mother.
Kunkun told
the Beijing News that he could not remember what his parents looked like,
adding: "Other children don't play with me."
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