GUANGZHOU: Thirteen HIV-affected children spent an afternoon with players from Manchester United in this city yesterday, and 11 of them will serve as mascots for the match tonight between Manchester United and a local football club.

Hailing from Guangdong and Hubei provinces, as well as the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, the children drew, played games and took pictures with Manchester United players Ryan Giggs, Rio Ferdinand and Dong Fangzhuo. The children were also free to ask any questions they wanted.

The event was part of this year's Manchester United Asian tour.

"On every tour, we take time out of our schedule to learn about the work of our global partner UNICEF, specifically their work to support children whose lives are affected by HIV/AIDS," said David Gill, CEO of Manchester United. "The impact of HIV/AIDS on young people is an issue that Manchester United is firmly committed to."

Gill said the players' involvement in the program will draw attention to the stigma and discrimination against HIV/AIDS and help dispel the most common myths about the disease.

"These children's lives will certainly change after today," said Yin Yin Nwe, representative of UNICEF China.

She said HIV-affected children in China face a lot of discrimination because the epidemic is still young in China, and people here do not have much information about the disease.

She said UNICEF's HIV work focuses on pediatric care for HIV-infected children, the prevention of mother-to-child transmission, prevention among young people and protection of children affected.

UNICEF has been working with Manchester United to get funds to the neediest children in the HIV-hit areas of Yunnan and Guangxi in Southwest China.

Sources say there are 70,000 HIV infections each year in China, and that there were 650,000 people infected with the disease by the end of 2005.

About 140,000 children under the age of 18 had lost one or both parents to AIDS by the end 2005, with 370,000-570,000 children under 18 living in households affected by AIDS.

(China Daily 07/27/2007 page4)