A 3-YEAR-OLD boy living in Mawu Village in Longgang District recently caught the attention of his neighbors as the little boy was often seen wandering the streets by himself. Some neighbors even saw him sleeping on the street, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported.

The boy is known as Xiao-qiang. One neighbor surnamed Yu said that a couple of days ago she found the boy lying on a stone chair on the street, and his feet and face were covered with small blisters. Failing to find his parents, Yu turned to the media for help. At first, Yu thought the boy lived on the street but later was told that he actually lived in Mawu Village with his parents. Some people who know the boy even told Yu that Xiaoqiang’s parents had violent tendencies.

Yu heard that Xiaoqiang’s parents are migrant workers who moved to Mawu Village four years ago. The couple isn’t married and they have two sons. Xiaoqiang is their older son. The younger one is almost 2 years old, and he cannot talk at the moment due to malnutrition.

Residents living nearby said they had seen Xiaoqiang’s parents beating and scolding him, and that they seem to have very bad tempers. Security staff also said that they had helped search for the boy many times since April when he was reported missing at night.

“It seems that his parents are not taking good care of him. He always came to my store and sat on the toy cars. Once he fell asleep on the car,” the owner of one convenience store in the village said.

According to Xiaoqiang’s mother, the scars on his skin were caused by an accident. Xiaoqiang’s father admitted to having beaten the boy before, but said it was just to intimidate him when he was being very unruly and naughty. Since the father’s salary is the family’s only source of income, the mother said they did not have enough money to take Xiaoqiang to the hospital for his skin disease.

The reporter then visited the place where the family lives and found that besides two beds in the bedroom and one table and several fragile chairs in the living room, they have no other furniture. Even though the weather is getting colder, they still have a summer mat on their beds.

After Yu made an online post about the boy, many kind netizens donated money for the poor kid. However, after learning about the boy’s parents, residents decided to buy him some life necessities rather than give money to his parents. Presently, the women’s federation in Mawu Village has gotten involved in the case.

(Wang Jingli)