BEIJING, 10th August, 2004. The seventy children had come from twelve different counties in five separate provinces of China, and all were on their first trip to the nation’s capital for the launch of a UNICEF funded three day Summer Camp. Chinese actors Pu Cunxin and Jiang Wenli, both national AIDS ambassadors, joined UNICEF International Goodwill Ambassador Sir Roger Moore and Government leaders at the opening ceremony in the Great Hall of the People yesterday morning.

Speeches were kept short and to the point, with Pu Cunxin saying he was pleased to see the leaders present at the launch and expressed the hope that by continuing to work together they would find the "sun behind the clouds" for these children. Actress Jiang Wenli’s wish was that all the children would be free to go anywhere and do anything that they wanted to do without being seen by society as different in any way.

Sir Roger Moore addressed the children first in his speech. He explained "for all of us at UNICEF, and in my wife’s heart and my own, children always come first". This was both a sad and happy occasion for the UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, who was happy that over the next few days the children would have a chance to enjoy their Summer Camp and forget the sadness they had left behind. At the same time it was saddening that the children had needed to first suffer loss for this opportunity to be given to them.

Sir Roger then asked the audience "can youimagine the experience of leading a perfectly normal life and then one day discovering that you are HIV-positive and that everybody knows. Suddenly you can no longer share your work-bench and your children are ostracised at school. But why, he questioned, should there be such stigma attached to AIDS when it cannot be passed on to your workmates or your fellow students through eating together or holding hands? Why, he asked, couldn’t the todays of these children remain the same as their yesterdays"?
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"Until you can recognize your enemy, you cannot fight it", continued Sir Roger, as he congratulated the Government of China on its adoption of "the five commitments" which he believed offered the promise of a real future for these children. Listing the various rights which all children were guaranteed under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Sir Roger emphasised the right of children to be heard. He urged the children that whenever their voices should not prove loud enough, they should call on their two ambassadors for help, as both had surely demonstrated today the strength of their voices.

Next, a 13-year old girl came to the microphone to tell of how she was only in the fourth grade. This she explained was not because she was a poor student, but because she had lost her father to AIDS and had then been required to look after the house while her mother fought to keep the family afloat and pay the funeral expenses for her departed father. She recalled how her mother had first married again and then died, aged only 30, and how, after her stepfather had not wanted to keep her, she had gone to live with her grandparents and had lost all hope in her life. But then the local authorities and UNICEF had stepped in to help her resume her schooling, which had given her a glimpse of a better future. She was enjoying the Summer Camp also as it had given her a chance to meet with other children who shared similar experiences to her own. She had been very happy to hear children recognised as the future of society and she pledged herself to work hard towards building a future for herself and her new friends within society.

In addition to encouraging the exchange of experiences between children, UNICEF is funding the Summer Camp because it provides children orphaned by AIDS with the chance to meet and mix with other children. The camp also helps bring to the attention of society the need these children have for love care and social acceptance.

UNICEF Representative Dr. Christian Voumard placed the situation of children orphaned by AIDS in a global perspective, reminding the audience that it was Asia which had the greatest absolute number of orphans. He recognised the work of the Chinese government in its efforts to allay the suffering and help provide a future for the AIDS orphans. The need he believed was to work with all sections of society to help address stigma and discrimination and mobilise additional resources with which to provide these children with the love and care they need to take their full place within society.

Madame Gu Xiulian, member of the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress reiterated the need for all children to have the same rights of survival, development and protection, so that the guaranteeing of their security could in turn lead to real social development. Wang Zhao Hu, Executive Director of the China National Committee for the Care of Children (CNCCC) then called upon all society to treat all children as they would treat their own, especially those who had lost their parents. It was imperative, he said, because in this way they would be able to become productive members of society.

UNICEF-assisted projects for children orphaned by AIDS include the provision of schooling and socio-psychological counseling, as well as basic health care. Thanks to the USD 100,000 which has been raised in connection with the recently held Asian Football Cup, these services will now be expanded to reach more orphans. Sir Roger Moore, Pu Cunxin and Jiang Wenli had all been present at the 5th August Fundraiser which had served to raise not just funds but also awareness of the situation faced by the 78,000 children in China that have been orphaned by AIDS.