For at least three months, Ban Aihua has tried to legalize her privately run foster home, a humble shelter for 68 children.

However, her plea to register the home as a non-governmental charity agency has fallen on deaf ears. She is still waiting for official authorization to run a welfare home for orphans and other abandoned children in South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

The news of a deadly fire that killed seven people at an unlicensed orphanage in Central China's Henan province on Jan 4 was particularly disturbing, Ban said.