Ten children are in government custody following a fatal fire that killed six children and an adult and destroyed the children's home, an unregistered orphanage, in Lankao county, Central China's Henan province. The children had been living with a woman named Yuan Lihai, who is believed to have been operating the unregistered orphanage out of her home since 1986, using money earned from working as a street vendor to provide for them. |
The Lankao fire is not an isolated incident. It has rung alarm bells for other grassroots orphanages. Without a functioning child welfare system, tragedies are likely to happen in other places too. The tragedy is partly a result of China's child welfare system. |