176
HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT
the needy by means of distributing food, clothing and medical supplies. C.A.R.E. Inc. also has imported a large quantity of food parcels from the U.S.A. for distribution through various welfare organizations. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul gives monetary grants for food to families in distress or for payment of school fees or medical expenses, whilst the Hong Kong War Memorial Fund assists with grants to various categories of people bereaved as a result of the war.
Care for the aged in Hong Kong is in the main well provided for within the strong family system of the Chinese. However, in order to meet the needs of those who were without any means of support, religious organizations run four old people's homes in which institutional care is provided for approximately 1,000 old people.
In the past few years an uninterrupted series of fires in squatter areas, the earlier ones of very large proportions, have necessitated on many occasions urgent mass emergency relief measures, but fortunately with the erection of multi- storey estates for the resettlement of squatters and the con- struction of fire lanes in the wooden-hut squatter areas, large fires of the type that occurred at Shek Kip Mei and Tai Hang Tung are now much less likely to occur. The largest fire during the year was the Flower Market Village fire of 22nd October, which rendered 2,280 people homeless. There has also been the usual quota of minor disasters such as small fires in tenement houses, landslides, house collapses, capsized junks and floods. The total number of victims of these disasters, including those of the Flower Market Village fire, was 5,358. After each of these disasters free meals were distributed by the Social Welfare Office, clothing and blankets were issued either by the British Red Cross Society or by the Church World Service, and the distribution of non-Government relief, consisting mainly of rice or cash grants, was undertaken by Kaifong and other welfare organizations.