Home Alone
Home Alone lived his early years with his mother, father and older sister in a poor village outside of Beijing. They were extremely poor, so in the late 1990s, his father made some extra money selling blood to a Beijing blood bank. The father heard about the national blood campaign from his co-workers on the construction site where he worked. Unlike his fellow workers, however, he chose to sell his blood in Beijing. His co-workers went to a rural village in Henan to sell theirs.
Within two or three years, the first of his co-workers died from selling blood. Then another, and then another. The father didn't understand why they were dying, but assumed that, if they had been infected with something that led to their deaths, he too was infected. In a rage, he burst into the Beijing blood bank where he sold his blood and beat up every doctor and nurse he could find before being hauled away by authorities. As a result, he was put in jail for 15 years.
With no husband for financial support, the mother worked hard to keep the family going, but eventually she took a job (the boy says she works as a maid) some place far from their home. She sent the children money periodically so that they could live alone in their home and attend school. Last year, there was not enough money for both children to stay in school, so the boy's sister quit school at age 14 and moved to join her mother in her employment.
Left alone at 12 years old, Home Alone continued to live by himself, tending the small fields, and attending school. He did quite well in school and was especially good in math and science. He won a city prize for the invention he entered in a school science fair. But soon he stopped attending school because he couldn't pay the fees. It was only then that school officials became aware that he had been abandoned by his mother. The principal found Home Alone in his home, looking calm and confident but living in horrendous squalor.
The principal immediately alerted Golden Courage. Our first action was to get Home Alone back into school. We paid his fees, and we are currently working out arrangements for him to live under the care of adults. He has only distant relatives who, to this point, have shown no interest in taking him in. Since his parents are alive, technically, he is not eligible to be placed in a state-run orphanage.
Home Alone insists that he is just fine living on his own, and he has done a remarkable job of staying clean and fed. We are continuing to work to find a suitable solution for his living arrangements .