Government finds a new school for the HIV-shunned child

The Sri Lankan government has said that it has found a new place for a boy who was forced to leave a school in Kuliyapitiya on a false rumor of being HIV positive.

Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam has told the BBC a private company will fund the six-year-old's education until he leaves school. Donors will also provide the boy and his mother with a new home, he said. Parents of the old school withdrew their children from the school in Kuliyapitiya after a rumor that the child is HIV- positive spread and the education officials withdrew the six- year-old boy from the school. The father of the boy had died sometimes before and a rumor spread that he was infected with HIV. After the media turned the spotlight on the child's plight, President Maithripala Sirisena called her on Saturday to assure her that he will put the child in a school.