NEW YORK — One of the most disturbing aspects of Russia's HIV/AIDS epidemic is not only how rapidly it is spreading but also how many children from HIV-infected mothers have been abandoned and left to the care of the state. Efforts by authorities to place them in kindergartens or schools are in most cases unsuccessful.

They have become the children whom nobody wants, in an otherwise naturally caring society.

Russian law states that abandoned children should spend their first three years in "baby-houses" or orphanages that serve as kindergartens where children are taught to talk, walk and interact with other children.