Expelled HIV-positive boy gets settled in new school

An 8-year-old boy who was allegedly expelled from a village in Sichuan Province for being HIV-positive has now settled down in a specialist school in Shanxi Province.

"Kunkun (pseudonym) has received regular medical treatment and has been taken good care of by the teachers," Guo Xiaoping, the president of the Red Ribbon School in Linfen, Shanxi Province, where the boy now studies and lives, told the Global Times Sunday.

The Red Ribbon School is the only school in China that is equipped to look after and educate HIV-positive children, according to Guo.

Kunkun was forced to leave Sichuan's Shufangya village in December last year after more than 200 villagers - including his grandfather surnamed Luo - signed a petition that they delivered to the village committee in an apparent effort to protect the villagers' health, according to news portal people.com.cn.

"I did not want to abandon him, but my wife and I are too old to raise him." Luo explained.

After this incident came to national attention, the Sichuan government contacted the school in Linfen for Kunkun, who was sent to the Shanxi school in March, Guo said.

According to Luo, Kunkun was infected with HIV while in the womb and his mother left the family in 2006. His father, who works in Guangdong Province, has lost contact with his son.

After being diagnosed with HIV in 2011, the boy reportedly began to be rejected by local schools.

"A good social and educational environment is important for Kunkun and with the help of teachers, Kunkun is more open and polite than before," Guo said.