Students sit for a class on the inauguration day of the Linfen Red Ribbon School in Shanxi Province on December 1, 2011. Photo: CFP

When Cuicui was diagnosed with AIDS at age 6, her parents had already died of the disease and her foster parents had gotten divorced.

Her aunt sent Cuicui to the Linfen Third People's Hospital in Shanxi Province for treatment in 2006, where she showed signs of improvement.

However, two years later, she was sent back to hospital again for severe depression - the girl had been asked to sit alone in the corner of the classroom because other children were afraid of touching her.

Cuicui is far from the only HIV-impacted child to suffer from discrimination. Most schools and parents are not willing to let their children stay in a classroom with an HIV carrier. "Many schools expel HIV carriers, or persuade them to leave, or sometimes just ask them to move out of the dormitory. These children also suffer isolation and bias from teachers and classmates, who are not willing to talk or play with them," said Chung To, founder and chairperson of the Chi Heng Foundation, a Hong Kong charity targeting HIV-impacted children.

Compared with other underage HIV carriers forced to stay away from school, Cuicui was lucky. The girl, now 13 years old, lives and studies at the Linfen Red Ribbon School. There, she will never be exiled to the back of the class or mocked for her condition.

Established in 2006 in North China's Shanxi Province, the Linfen Red Ribbon School is China's first and only school for children affected by HIV/AIDS. Founded by a hospital director, the boarding school now has 25 underage HIV carriers, and offers primary and junior middle school education. But the school has been controversial since the day it opened.

Surviving hardship 

The establishment of the school came as an accident.

"When Cuicui recovered from depression, she was not willing to go back to school. The school and her relatives also refused to take her back, so she started to live in our hospital ward with three babies carrying HIV, who were born in our hospital," said Guo Xiaoping, the principal of the school and chief director of the Linfen Third People's Hospital.

To alleviate the children's boredom, doctors and nurses brought in a blackboard and four desks, and opened a special class for the children. Hospital staff took turns being temporary teachers and brought the children books from home. "We don't know how long the children will live, but if they stay in hospital all the time, at least they will become literate. We hope they can learn knowledge as they would at school and have fun," Guo said.

A year later, the number of students increased to 16, and the temporary classroom was not large enough. Guo decided to set up a school for his "student" patients. "They are the hospital's children, and the affection between us is quite deep. We have tried our best to take care of them," he said.

However, running a school from scratch was totally different to running a hospital. Without any precedent to go by, the local government refused to provide the Red Ribbon School with certification. "The school is affiliated with our hospital because children need examinations in hospital every three months. But local officials had no experience in approving a hospital school and were not sure how many teachers and doctors were suitable for 25 patients and students," Guo said.

Without certification it was hard for Guo to recruit teachers. "As long as candidates had a teaching certificate, we recruited them all, but the number of teachers and their quality were unstable."

The school's first teacher was so afraid of AIDS that he wore glasses and a white coat in the class, and was not willing to touch the children. "Such behavior made the children stressed, so we asked him to leave," Guo said.     

Education expenses were also a big headache for the school without government subsidies. "The hospital exempted children's medical fees, and before the government provided anti-AIDS drugs for free, we had been getting all our medicine from the US-based Clinton Foundation for free and had received donations from the public. To reduce costs, we even grew vegetables by ourselves to become more self-sufficient," he said.

During the first six years, the school ran without certification, so students could not register in the local education system, had no graduation certificate, and were not allowed to attend the entrance examination for high school.

However, the school's destiny took a favorable turn in 2011, when Peng Liyuan, the World Health Organization Goodwill Ambassador for HIV/AIDS, and spouse of now the Chinese President, visited the school and had lunch with students on October 15, 2011. Just two weeks later, the local government approved  the school's certification and granted subsidies.

"It all came down to Peng's reputation, and our school was able to get qualifications in such a short period after her visit. Her influence made the government treat us as a very important and special issue," said Guo.

Beyond the school       

The Red Ribbon School currently has 25 students, 16 of them are in the third year of junior school and will attend the high school entrance examination this year. Since the school doesn't have a high school teacher, Guo contacted a local high school, which agreed to send teachers to Red Ribbon to teach a small class. "Six of our students are quite good in terms of their academic performance; I hope they go to university one day. The major of computer science, which doesn't need physical labor, is quite suitable for our students in college," said Guo.       

The school's fame also attracted many underage HIV carriers from other provinces, but Guo refused them all. "Relatives of 10 children, aged 7 and 8 years old, contacted us, but we suggested they ask a local orphanage or an NGO for help. Our ability is limited, the current 25 students are all from Shanxi Province."

Guo also rejected the possibility of opening more Red Ribbon Schools nationwide. "I am good at running a hospital, not a school. The school was established by accident and this model won't suit other provinces or hospitals; these children's parents were my patients too, and their children are special to me," Guo said.

But despite saying that building similar schools in other provinces would be a waste of resources, he plans to keep his school running.

According to Chung To, founder of the Chi Heng Foundation, this model of education for HIV carriers is not worth copying. "Confining the children in an enclosed school would make it harder for them to integrate into society.

"People can build primary schools or even high schools for them, but they cannot give them an enclosed university that is only open to HIV carriers," To told the Global Times, also expressing concern that establishing an isolated school for these people would send the message that they should be quarantined.

Over the past 12 years the Chi Heng Foundation has provided funds to assist 16,400 AIDS-impacted children in China. Instead of building AIDS schools, the foundation encourages students to go to normal schools. "We tell local school headmasters that it is illegal to turn down HIV carriers, so most children can join the schools. In total, 2,000 of them have entered university so far, some have even become doctors," said To. "Placing the children in normal schools helps them integrate purposefully with children not affected by HIV/AIDS. These efforts aim to give them a stronger sense of community and belonging, and further decrease their sense of social stigma and isolation."

But Guo also pointed out that his students need to take anti-viral drugs twice daily and forgetting can have serious ramifications, such as building up a resistance to the drug. "The underage lack self-control, so when they live together it is easier for teachers to supervise them and ensure they take medicine on time. After they enter college, it would not be a problem any more," he said.

Widespread discrimination

According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS, by the end of 2011, 3.73 million children worldwide were HIV carriers, and one of its reports showed that China had effectively treated 2,563 AIDS children by the end of 2011.

Though China has not done any surveys on HIV/AIDS-impacted children, the UN Children's Fund estimated that by the end of 2010, China had 496,000 to 894,000 children affected in some way by HIV/AIDS, and 20,000 to 27,000 of them lost parents due to the disease.   

"The provinces and regions of Henan, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Yunnan, Guangdong and Guangxi have high rates of HIV, and most children get the virus from an HIV-positive mother during pregnancy," according to Zhou Hongyu, a professor with Central China Normal University and deputy to the National People's Congress. Most AIDS patients live in less developed provinces, and the poverty and discrimination from society can cause a considerable psychological burden on the children. Many underage HIV carriers are prone to depression, extreme thoughts and personality disorders, which may become a vicious circle, Zhou said.

"I once met a 17-year-old girl with HIV, she thought her disease was caused by society, and didn't believe she had a future. To take revenge, she became a prostitute to distribute the virus to others," Wei Xueyin, an HIV/AIDS social worker in Henan Province, told the Global Times.

"The discrimination against HIV/AIDS sufferers still exists, so we often tell children that they must be strong inside, and shouldn't look down on themselves. They need psychological care more than donations from society," said Wei.

In remote villages, people are still afraid of AIDS. "I once helped a 12-year-old boy who only fed on instant noodles every day, because his relatives were afraid of the disease and poured the boy's lunch in front of his room like they were feeding pigs. The boy hated his relatives and society," Wei said.

"Our 25 students are lucky because so many people are willing to help them. If we give HIV carriers a hand and help them out they will benefit our society in the future; but if we push them and discriminate against them, they would hate the society in the end and it becomes a vicious circle," said Guo.