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21. 01. 13. - 11:00

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21. 01. 13. - 11:00

Home Alone Kids

Kathryn Quinn

Seven Chinese kids abandoned most of the year by their parents who have moved away to earn money have been chosen to highlight a campaign about the problem.

People that migrate to cities in search of work from rural communities are of vital importance to the country's infrastructure, especially with the lack of employment opportunities in the countryside.

But in many cases not just one but both parents will leave to look for work meaning that in some cases whole villages are populated by children and the elderly - who are expected to care for them.

These snaps were taken of seven kids at Machang village, in Datong, in Hainan province in southern China. Although there are 400 families the parents are all migrant workers and the children and elderly are the only inhabitants.

With the arrival of the Chinese New Year at the start of next month they have posted their wishes for the New Year as a message to their parents and to highlight their position.

During the New Year celebrations – also known as the spring festival – many of the children's parents will return home where they will plant crops and prepare the farms for summer and then will vanish again until the autumn when they will return again from their city jobs for the harvest.

Some of the children asked for books, others asked for a Barbie doll, another gun and another a bike and a computer. But all of them also agreed that the thing they wanted most was their mum and dad.

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