Workers with the foundation once visited some families of AIDS-orphaned children in Zhaojue, Ye said. "They are living a really hard life. In an extremely poor family, I saw that those jars used to contain rice and flour were empty. They ate meat about once a month."

Malnutrition was threatening the physical conditions of the students, who were significantly shorter than other children their age.

"The AIDS orphans that our sponsorship couldn't reach were in worse health conditions," Ye added.

The foundation provided every student in the class with 150 yuan ($22) per month, so food and uniforms would no longer be barriers to schooling.

But the subsidy was apparently insufficient to support the whole family or enable them to develop outside interests.

"I still remember one night last year when Zhihuo and her grandmother had run out of food. The girl knelt in a field at 10 pm to dig for potatoes, took them back home alone and cooked them for her grandmother," Wusha recalled.

Also, most students in the class had to do household and farm chores in their leisure time to help the family make ends meet. "We simply can't afford to play," said 12-year-old Muniu.

Considering that the county' s government had a tight budget, it couldn't help much, Ye said.

HIDDEN SCARS

Any conversations concerning their parents are "taboos" for the children, even between themselves, Wusha said.

They loved being together due to their similar backgrounds, but were unwilling to share their stories, he said. "Also, they never mentioned that to me."

Some of them became silent when confronted with a question like, "When did you begin living with your grandparents?", while others simply said "I can't remember".

While struggling to combat poverty, the children also have to face discrimination from others, even though they test HIV-negative.

Zhang Lin, a worker with the foundation, said the children were unfairly treated when they attended a summer camp held in Beijing and Shanghai in mid-August this year.

"The travel agencies responsible for our trip insisted on reviewing the medical test results of the children, which is unacceptable from our angle," said Zhang, who accompanied the children to the Summer Palace, Tsinghua University, the Great Wall and the Shanghai Expo.