Grandfather of boy with HIV defends signing petition to have him banished from village
The eight-year-old's grandparents say they can no longer care for the child, who has been expelled from school and ostracised by neighbours
The grandfather of an HIV-positive eight-year-old boy said he had no choice but to sign a petition backed by 200 residents calling for the boy to be banished from their village.
Luo Sheng, 69, who lives in Xichong county, Sichuan province, told that his grandson, known as Kunkun, had been abandoned by his parents and he was exhausted caring for the child.
"We can no longer support the boy," Luo said. "Not even his own parents care for him. My wife is half-blind and deaf and I'm suffering from heart disease and back problems.
"My other, younger son's wife has divorced him and taken away my other two grandchildren because of Kunkun's illness. If the boy doesn't leave, who will want to marry my younger son?"
Luo said he received 600 yuan (HK$760) each month from the government to care for Kunkun, who was diagnosed with HIV in 2011. Doctors believe the boy was infected by his HIV-positive mother during pregnancy.
READ MORE: Chinese villagers sign petition to banish boy, 8, with HIV
Many villagers regarded the boy as "a ticking time bomb", reported.
On December 7, dozens of villagers held a meeting to discuss sending Kunkun away, which led to the petition being set up.
Media reports said villagers deliberately kept their distance from the boy.
The child, who was banned from playing with other children, was expelled from his school and no other local school would take him in. He was left to play outside by himself.
Luo, who described his grandson as "naughty", said: "No one in the village likes him."
Kunkun's plight was first reported on Wednesday by a website affiliated with .
Luo told that since the report, some people had expressed an interest in caring for the boy, but that nothing had been confirmed.
Village head Wang Shulin said Kunkun had exhausted all possible means of care in the village. The boy had to be cared for alongside the village's frail, elderly residents, he said.
Luo said his elder son, who was adopted, met Kunkun's mother in Guangzhou when she was three months' pregnant with the child. The mother abandoned the boy when he was three, and the elder son later left him in the sole care of the child's grandparents.
People on the mainland living with HIV and Aids face widespread discrimination and social stigma, with even medical workers sometimes refusing to come into contact with them.
UNAids estimates that at the end of 2011, there were at least 780,000 people who were infected with the virus in the country.
In 2012, President Xi Jinping visited a group of HIV-positive people in Beijing and urged society to end discrimination and "to light up their lives with love", Xinhua reported.
