Beijing (AsiaNews/SCMP) – Even though financial support from the central government and child welfare non-governmental organisations is available, ADIS orphans live in extreme poverty because of local government's pride, this according to Wang Chongrun, 49, founder of the Beijing Care Youth Education Research Centre, who over a three-week period visited 20 villages plagued by the disease in Henan province.

Mr Wang found that the children were living in destitution. Those he saw in the Nanyang, Zhumadian and Shangqiu, "irrespective of whether they were living with their grandparents or by themselves, were in extreme poverty," he said.

The Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs defines AIDS orphans as children who have lost both parents. Excluded from the definition are children who have been abandoned or whose remaining parent is afflicted with the disease. This means that children with one parent still living cannot get access to accommodation or education provided by the province's network of 20 so-called Sunshine Houses.

"In some cases," the child rights advocate noted, the "remaining parent is also an AIDS patient. In other cases, the parent left them with their grandparents and went away to remarry or become a migrant worker."

Mr Wang noted that the children were aged between eight and 15, lived in unhygienic homes, wore threadbare clothes and did not continue their education beyond primary school.

Many teenagers had also left their hometown to find employment in the cities, not knowing if they too were HIV positive.

Official figures put the number of AIDS orphans at about 60,000, but the latter is expected to reach 260,000 over the next six years.

According to the United Nations Children's Fund figures, there are 70,000 to 80,000 AIDS orphans across the mainland, including those with only one parent.

Mr Wang said that although the children were struggling to survive, local county and village officials rejected offers of support from organisations such as his centre.

"We've talked to local governments countless times. They always reply that there is no need for help. They said the children were well cared for," he said.

Mr Wang added that in one case a local government "borrowed" children from the education centre funded by his organisation to create a false impression during ministerial inspections of the numbers of children living in the Sunshine Houses.

He further said that "in three Sunshine Houses I visited only one, two and four children were accommodated while dozens of children in their respective villages were denied access." Why? Because local authorities want to spend as little as possible.

But this must change, Mr Wang insisted, "otherwise the children will not receive any aid."