Love is the key | Bangkok Post: feature

St Valentine's Day is a day of love and romance. It is a day when students put heart stickers on their friends' uniforms, when lovers give each other red roses and presents, and when family members express their love in extraordinary ways. But most of all it is children and young people who need love, and the understanding that naturally accompanies it.

Hani, 18, was born with HIV. She calls on society to understand children living with HIV and not to discriminate them. PHOTOS: JINGJAI N

Poon, a 10-year-old boy who spent a year on the streets of Chiang Mai, is one of them. He took to the streets over a year ago after he could no longer tolerate the repeated beatings doled out by his mother. When his mother, a sex worker and drug addict, left with her latest boyfriend, Poon no longer had a "home" to return to.