Charity aids tragic toddler

Charity volunteers are calling for donations to pay for treatment in a Beijing hospital for a baby girl from an impoverished Shaanxi Province family, who is suffering from serious diarrhea and other diseases that have left her severely malnourished.

Hui Yuxin, the 21-month-old girl, suffers from serious anemia, malnutrition, and anal and vaginal fistulas. She was dubbed "skeleton girl" after a charity volunteer posted pictures of her emaciated frame on May 4.

Yuxin was diagnosed with anal polyps when she was nine months old, and her condition began deteriorating in March when she contracted diarrhea and started losing weight.

Chen Yaqin, Yuxin's grandmother, brought her to the capital from Shaanxi with only 400 yuan ($63), all the money she has. They arrived at Beijing Children's Hospital in Xicheng district on March 4 after receiving aid from the China Charities Aid Foundation for Children (CCAFC). Due to the limited number of beds in the hospital, Yuxin has to stay in the outpatient building.

Yesterday a Global Times reporter found Yuxin lying in a small room with needles and tubes in her body.

"She is better than two days ago, when she barely had the strength to open her eyes," said a parent of another child in the same room.

Chen is the only family member to care for Yuxin in the hospital. When the Global Times reporter found she needed a new diaper, the nurse refused to help. Yuxin's mother left when she was four months old. Her father is mentally unstable, and her grandfather suffers injuries from a car accident, Chen said.

"Many have offered a helping hand, which gives me great comfort and hope," said Chen. A man came and gave her 150,000 yuan in cash yesterday afternoon, she said, and many volunteers have paid visits.

A woman who visited Yuxin yesterday and only gave her name as Du, said she brought quilts to Chen after seeing the girl's pictures on Weibo.

"My heart ached when I applied body lotion to her dry skin, which has begun peeling off. Coming see her is the least I can do," Du said.

A volunteer with CCAFC, surnamed Pan, who helps children with major diseases, said he was shocked to see Yuxin in such a delicate condition when Chen came for help.

The foundation has set up a bank account to collect public donations, and they have raised 40,000 yuan. Yuxin's preliminary checkups and treatments have cost around 8,000 yuan, and further ones might cost at least 80,000 yuan, said Pan.

"Doctors are trying to find out the cause of her continuous diarrhea and put an end to it so that she can stop losing weight," he said.