XINJIANG – DIFFICULTIES OF CHILDREN

1. Dropping out of school

"Dropping out of school due to financial problems."
This is a common difficulty, experienced by most
children in the research. Various reasons may lead
to poverty. The children's research found that drug
use, HIV infection, parent's divorce, loss of one or
both parents and serious diseases, including AIDS,
of family members are the factors that lead to
family poverty. These factors also interact with
each other.

Among the children interviewed, 22 had a family
member who is taking drugs or infected with HIV.
The principal drug abusers were their fathers. "In
the past we led a happy life. But my Dad was later
addicted to drugs and died of AIDS, and we come
down in the world. (My Mum sold our home in
order to save my Dad, and we were in abject
poverty. I work as a shoe-boy to make living.)"
"My dad used drugs and my Mum divorced him, I
now live in my granny's and earn money by shoe
shining." Seven children have mothers who
divorced their drug using husband. Four children
do not have fathers because of deaths due to drug
abuse: one of these deaths was later confirmed to
be drug-related AIDS (another father was
suspected as an AIDS patient).

Children's view was that among family problems it
is a father's drug abuse that does most harm to
children, and has the greatest impact on children.
Father's drug abuse often leads to family bickering,
divorce, infection of their spouse and subsequent
AIDS (via sexual transmission), and death due to
AIDS. This was evidenced throughout the project,
in the issues children raised, their perception of
children in difficulties and their research findings.
Children see the mother and children as usually
being direct victims of father's drug use, mother
possibly becoming an AIDS patient and children
becoming AIDS orphans.

Also, at Haitian Street, children noted that there
were many young men who could not find jobs and
so were laughed by others, deprived of self-esteem
and were lost in depression. They are vulnerable to
drug use. Someday in the near future they will
become husbands and fathers, and if they cannot
be helped to find and live a good life there will be
another family that will be affected by HIV/AIDS
through drugs.

Apart from nineteen children with divorced parents,
seventeen are orphans whose parents died in their
early childhood. Divorce and bereavement leave
children in abject poverty, and they had to try to
earn money for the family. An 11-year-old boy who
lived with his mother and two sisters said: "Dad has
passed away and we can not live a happy life as
before." An 11-year-old boy who is still in school
due to funding from the government said: "my
parents are divorced, my Mum works in a
restaurant, I want to be a driver. I buy exercise
books with money that I earn from selling cool tea.
It was a great shock for me when my parents
divorced."

Ill-health and diseases of family members often
lead to poverty. A 13-year-old boy who had
dropped out of school said: "my Dad suffered from
pneumonia and we sold our farm to treat his
diseases. But it proved futile and he died." A 13-
year-old boy said: "my Dad was severely diseased
and my Mum borrowed a lot of money to save him.
Being unable to pay my tuition, I left school." The
attitude of their teacher towards children is also a
major factor influencing children's school
attendance.

2. Mental torment: psychological and emotional pain

Difficulties not only include material shortage;
mental torment and mental health problems also
matter much, and these may be even harder to
endure. "When I ran back home I found Mum had
died, and I cried." "They were distressed for their
drug abuser father. They cried and begged father
to quit. Now that their father has returned to the
right way, they are happy despite their poverty.

The girls said that they are happy although they are
poor, as long as they are free from anxiety."

Children saw that parents' relationships, behaviours
and luck have a particular impact on children.
Parents' drug use (or HIV infection), divorce,
serious disease or accidents ("Father died in a car
accident. Mother brought us up.") not only
impoverish their families, but also leave their traces
in the heart of children. "They [the children
interviewed] are distressed for their abuser father."
A boy mentioned the passing away of his father: "I
was depressed then and my enthusiasm for
learning waned, I even was reluctant to go to class.
Later, I dropped out school to relieve my family
from financial crisis. From then on I experience the
hardship of life. Now whenever I think of my past
dreaming for a good future, my heart bleeds."
Quarrels between parents prior to divorce also
deeply distress children. Discrimination as a result
of drug use or HIV infection of family members
aggravates the already existing emotional pains of
children.

3. Stigma and discrimination

Children found that the attitudes and behaviours of
other people will usually significantly influence
children's self respect, attitudes, behaviours and
self-identification, particularly when they are in
difficulties. Children in difficult situations are often
stigmatised or discriminated against for various
reasons. A 12-year-old boy who was arrested for
theft, said "discrimination and repulsion are the
most intolerable agony." He advised other children
to take note of his experiece: "do not be a baddy
like me; cherish time and do not play truant." The
interviewer noted that, "His friends laughed at him
saying he is an orphan abandoned by divorced
parents."

Drug use or HIV infection of family members is
cited as the top cause for discrimination or stigma.
An 8-year-old girl whose father was out of work
due to drug abuse said: "I will be sad if someone
says I am a daughter of a drug abuser. I do not
confide this fact even to my teacher." A boy
whose father died of drug abuse said that, "some
people swear at me that my Dad was a drug
abuser." This is not a simple problem because of
the feelings children have for their parents, even
when they cause them unhappiness: it is a problem
of discrimination. As one child with a drug using
father said: "although my Dad uses drugs, I still
love him, because he is my dad." During the
survey review, children unanimously emphasised
that family poverty should not be a reason for
discrimination.

4. Lacking protection/being bullied

During the discussions, we once again saw that
children's difficulties are interrelated. Dropping out
of school not only undermines the future of children,
but also affects their present lives, leaving them in
`mental torment', and possibly facing discrimination
and being bullied. "I left school due to financial
embarrassment. Some look down me because I am
poor. I was once abused by some adults."
Children who dropped out of school to work and
earn money for their poor families may be bullied at
their work. A stepmother/stepfather frequently
does not treat the two sets of children with an
equal hand. Pupils getting a poor score or who are
unable to pay tuition may be laughed at by
teachers or be physically punished. Children asked,
who can protect them?

An 8-year-old boy dropped out of school due to
financial problems. "This boy runs a tea stall on a
street earning six renminbi each day. The boy gave
all the money to her mother helping her making
living. Sometimes some adults drank his tea but
refused to pay him. The boy came to his mother
and could not stop crying although his mother tried
her best to soothe him." Another boy, also working
said: "Some people do not pay me but beat me,
while some people help me."

A girl who lives with her stepfather said: "I am not
spoiled by my stepfather, he does not pay my
tuition. He only offers money to children of his set
[his own biological children], he beats me and
curses me, my Mum is helpless witnessing this." A
boy told an interviewer about his stepmother: "she
made me sleep on floor and I only had charred flat
cake to eat and bad clothes to wear. So I could not
tolerate this and become a street child. Sometimes
when I was hungry, back home flashed in my mind,
but I decided not to return for preventing myself
from seeing her."

A 13-year-old child who dropped out of school said:
"five children of my family discontinued their
education because of poverty. Even worse, the
teachers were so cruel, they instructed us to stand
with bricks in hand and beat us." A 12-year-old
boy who is still in school said: "before I could pay
off tuition, my teacher drove me out of classroom
several times." "The teachers beat my mouth until
it bleed for my small wrongdoings and my granny
cried seeing this." "I was originally interested in
learning, but I left school because of being
physically punished."

Some children were taken in or supported by
relatives, particularly grandparents. The
government provided an allowance for some
children, and some other local people also offered
help, both material but also simply consolation and
similar support that was highly valued. "I miss my
original family. When I was about two, my parents
divorced and I lived in my grandpa's. My grandpa
and granny treated me kindly but I still miss my
original family where my parents cared for me, I
hate and miss them. I mull over my misfortune, is
it acceptable for parents bearing me and then
abandoning me? I am 15 years old now and my
grandpa and granny are too old to sustain me. Will
my grandpa and granny look after me long enough
and provide tuition for me, how should I do if they
die? I want to get a warm family where parent love
exists."

Other local people offering help for the children,
included friends (other children), teachers, and
some adults. For example, children cited a local
woman who, although she herself is not rich,
managed to help children continue their education
and, as they said, "This moved us deeply." Also,
"Relatives and neighbours help to relieve us from
difficulties". "When he is denied payment for
shoeshine, friends come and console him."
"Originally I wanted to drop out of school and go to
the street to earn money. My teacher came to my
home and talked me out of that idea. She helped
me to get social security aid from the government
and now I am offered 180 renminbi a month and I
lived a better life from then on." "Now I stay home
to look after my diseased mother. We are lucky
enough to get social security aid from the
government, which helps us survive."

Nevertheless, children found that help is not yet
adequate or appropriate. "Although the social
security aid helps us to survive, we still lack money
for tuition." "There is a family with seven members
including the mother and six children. The father
abandoned the family. The government, however,
only granted subsidy for the two boys." "He
continued education under financial help from the
Street Office, and his school offered him free
education. What annoyed him was that the school
took back books that were promised free, which
deeply weakened his aspiration for being
educated." "My granny refused to receive a new
house offered by the government, because she
wanted a house located other than the place she
lives now. She hates it because it ruined the life of
her son. They are in extreme poverty."

Children also suggested that the government
should clarify while distributing subsidies for
minimum living allowance [social security] that the
money is for the family as a whole, not just for a
certain family member. Children found that some
people use the money for themselves, for example,
the husband receives the money and thinks he will
use it himself and does not see it as being for the
benefit of the whole family.

(From Listen, Secrets!: Issues and Research by Children Affected by
HIV/AIDS in Xinjiang and Yunnan, China)