One of dozens of camps around the country where Vietnam quarantines addicts and prostitutes, the Ba Vi center has fostered its own homegrown initiative pairing AIDS orphans with HIV-positive inmates.
In a brightly lit nursery littered with colorful toys and plush animals, Nguyen Thi Hoa, 28, has both arms full of squirming toddlers. Hoa, who became infected through heroin use, says she feels an obligation to care for the infected children as her own healthy 10-year-son is being raised by her mother.
Abandoned at local hospitals or orphaned by infected parents, 16 children ranging from five months to six years old are being raised here.
"There are no boundaries here," said Nguyen Thi Phuong, the center's director. "They have come to love each other like mother and child."
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