CHAPTER VI
WELFARE IN THE ESTATES AND AREAS
67. The resettlement estates and areas, with their large concentra- tions of people, present both a great need and a great opportunity for welfare work of all descriptions. Apart from the welfare activities now in operation, applications are still being received incessantly from welfare organizations and missionary societies for the allocation of such accommodation.
68. In the cottage areas schools and welfare centres have been built by voluntary agencies on sites provided by the Department. A nominal fee of $2.50 a quarter is charged for these sites. New projects completed during the year included the Lai Yuk Wan Buddhist Primary School (Kau Wan Village Primary School) in Fu Tau Wat, the Oxfam Hostel run by the Hong Kong Catholic Social Welfare Bureau for T.B. and cancer out-patients of Queen Mary Hospital in the Mount Davis Cottage Area and the new Kaifong Welfare Association premises in the same
area.
69. By the end of the year the fourteen cottage areas had 21 schools with places for 15,222 children, 2 boys' and girls' clubs, 12 welfare centres and 9 clinics. There were also 9 Kaifong Welfare Associations working under the guidance of the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs.
70. In Multi-storey Estates the Resettlement Department has no sites to offer to voluntary agencies, and a different policy has evolved. The rooftops of these blocks are specially strengthened and provided with penthouses so that they can be used for boys' and girls' clubs or primary schools. A nominal fee of $1 is charged for the use of a rooftop and school fees are limited to $60 a year. At the end of the year there were 157 rooftops allocated for schools, 62 rooftops for boys' and girls' clubs and 14 rooftops for vocational training centres.
71. By arrangement with the Social Welfare and Education Depart- ment the ground floor rooms in selected blocks in new estates are now reserved for schools and welfare projects and are allocated by these departments to suitable voluntary agencies.
72. In the newer blocks, in which the supporting walls are at twenty feet intervals, it is possible to have bays of double the normal size, thus providing school classrooms of about 20 by 25 feet. At the end of the year there were 20 schools in operation on the ground floor of such blocks. These schools are operated by voluntary agencies as co-educa-
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