TING Ting is 15 years old. Her daughter Mei Mei was born 13 months ago. The father of the baby was sentenced last month to more than 10 years in prison on charges of rape and homicide.

Both mother and baby, who live at Xiaoxiwangzhijia, a Shanghai-based non-governmental organization dedicated to juvenile protection and care, exemplify a juvenile protection system in China that advocates say is seriously wanting.

There is no specific national law on the welfare security of children, and what regulations do exist are difficult to implement and often ignored.

“In China, maltreating children is very common because parents know nothing can be done if they don’t give up guardianship,” said Li Shilai, a worker at Xiaoxiwangzhijia. “They believe children are their personal property and they can do whatever they want with them.”

Ting Ting’s parents are migrant workers in a factory in Jiangsu Province. She and a younger brother were raised by grandparents in Sichuan Province, far from their parents, until the grandmother died.

The pair was reunited with their parents in Jiangsu. Ting Ting was forced to go out and work to help support the family.

The young girl found a job in a hotpot eatery, and then got involved with a co-worker who forced her to go with him to his hometown in a mountainous region of Yunnan Province and treated her with physical abuse. She got pregnant.

Ting Ting ended up at Xiaoxiwangzhijia, where she lives with her daughter in a three-story building rented by the organization on Dushi Road in Minhang District.

The group relies on donations to survive — donations of clothing, books, toys, baby items and money. There is no air conditioning on sweltering summer days.

Ting Ting is polite but timid. Her eyes light up only when the conversation turns to her baby.

“I gave her life, so I must try my best to take care of her,” she said.

Starve to death

In another room of the building, a 4-month-old child Wen Ling sleeps soundly.

He has been diagnosed with spina bifida and other congenital problems. Volunteers learned of his plight from online posts alleging that his parents were hoping he would starve to death.

Li said he tracked down Wen Ling and found that the baby hadn’t eaten for three days. He finally persuaded the parents to sign an agreement transferring the boy’s guardianship temporarily to the organization. Doctors held out little hope for Wen Ling’s survival.

“We don’t give up any kid,” he said. “It was a race against time to save him.”

Li shakes his head at all the misery. He said there are too many parents in China who just can’t cope with children, especially if they are born with serious conditions. At the same time, many parents refuse to cede guardianship to nonprofit groups trying to help children in distress.

“They believe they can decide the life or death of their children, but who can?” Li asked.

Wen Ling eventually had surgery in a Shanghai hospital in April, financed by donations. He needs further operations. There’s never enough money, Li said.

Need mounts. Last month, a 7-year-old boy was rescued by police after being held captive and abused by his parents, who both suffered from mental illness. His body was covered in cuts, burns and bruises and he weighed just 13 kilograms.

Also last month, a 6-year-old boy in Fujian Province with cigarette burn scars ran away from home for the second time. Police sent him back home once more. On his third attempt, the boy was sent to a welfare home providing only temporary shelter.

Saved 200 children

Xiaoxiwangzhijia, which translates as Small Hope Home, was founded last year by author and TV commentator Chen Lan to help children who are maltreated, neglected or abandoned. It has more than 1,000 volunteers nationwide, and claims to have saved some 200 children.

It was named after a baby, nicknamed “small hope,” who died of a congenital problem 74 days after birth because her father refused to help her and refused to give up guardianship.

Chen said she finally made up her mind to set up the organization after news reports of a 22-year-old mother in Nanjing who was imprisoned for letting her two young daughters starve to death.

“I could no longer bear such tragedies,” said Chen, who is herself a mother.

China’s current laws stipulate that lawsuits on a child’s behalf can be filed only when the rights and interests of minors are shown to be at serious risk. Being a poor parent is simply not grounds enough.

Tong Xiaojun, deputy director of the Social Work Research Center at the China Youth University for Political Sciences, said a coordinated government department is needed for the protection of children.

Compared with lack of funds, the legal vacuum is the key challenge, Chen said.

She suggests the creation of an early warning system to detect possible children at risk, a process of intervention to rescue children from abusive environments, and a legal system that can force parents to give up guardianship in instances where they are deemed unfit.

The group’s Li said sometimes violent parents won’t even open the door when volunteers come knocking to check up on reports of child abuse. In a few cases, police refuse to intervene.

In the past five years, hospitals in Shanghai have received at least 144 abandoned children. One child has been in a children’s hospital for two years, while police try in vain to contact the parents.

Under Chinese law, parents can be jailed for up to five years if they abandon their children, but few violators are punished.

Organizations that provide shelter for orphans, abandoned and maltreated children, aren’t always officially recognized by authorities nor assisted by government funds.

Li Liguo, China’s civil affairs minister, said earlier that individuals and non-governmental institutions that adopt abandoned babies and orphans are to be commended for their devotion and loving hearts. But giving them the support they need has proven elusive.

The good news is a court ruling in Fujian Province last month. A mother who physically abused her 9-year-old son and refused to let him go to school was legally deprived of guardianship after a local village committee brought a lawsuit against her.

It is believed to be the first case in Fujian where parents lost guardianship rights due to maltreatment of their children.