This year 16-year old Jiang Xiaoling (not her real name), 16 years old this year, is an AIDS orphan in Nanyang City, Henan province. On June 1, she happily walked into the district civil affairs office to register for a fashion design training course.

The Henan provincial authorities are targeting older AIDS orphans, paying for different types of vocational training courses in order to help them strengthen their abilities and position in society.

According to the Henan province department of Civil Affairs spokesperson, within the 2004 welfare budget distributed by that department there was 1 million RMB (note: $120,000 USD) in funds for AIDS orphans school fees. At present, these fees have already been distributed to 7 cities with a large number of AIDS orphans, including Zhumadian, Nanyang, Kaifeng, Shangcai, and Zhoukou. The provincial civil affairs office has set aside a small amount of funding to support vocational training for older AIDS orphans.

Relevant departments in Henan strictly require that all AIDS orphans 15 years and older with middle school records can receive vocational and higher education, and AIDS orphans 16 years and older can receive technical training from labor and other bureaus. The department of civil affairs is responsible for orgnaizaing and cooperating with other departments to provide vocational training and support the cost of these studies.

It is understood that there are already 19 orphans in Henan who have registered for these training courses. In addition, some middle school graduates with sufficient academic records will enter technical colleges in the fall term.

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