A six-year-old HIV carrier, has been living alone since his parents died of AIDS. The boy, known as Ah Long, does his own washing, cooking, studying and raises chickens. He lives in his parents’ house at the foothill village of Malu Mountain in Liuzhou in Guangxi Province, China. Ah Long has an 84-year-old grandmother, who visits him quite frequently and cooks for him despite not living with him. A local primary school was forced to turn down his application under pressure from parents of other children.
Due to his complicated family background, the Welfare Department has declined to take care of the boy. He receives 70 yuan of subsistence allowance per month from the local civil bureau.
I know this sort of thing happens in the world we live in, and I’m guilty of the “out of sight out of mind” laziness characteristic of many Westerners. The way this has made me feel makes me wish issues like this get a higher profile in our cultural conscience. I feel disgusting as a human being for letting something like this happen, even if there was nothing I personally could do to stop it.
