A few days later, into October, the sultry weather in Hong Kong has improved slightly, but this does not mean that it is much cooler, but it is getting hotter and hotter, but this heat has changed from muggy to hot.

Huo Yaowen can be said to be busy and dizzy during this time, running back and forth between the school and the foundation every day, and discussing the affairs of the foundation with Luo Qiaozhen and Zhang Chengyi every day.

In the past few days, the meeting has screened out poor students from Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, and the New Territories, and the first batch of 173 people has a total of 173 middle school students, all of whom have excellent academic performance but have very difficult family conditions.

Although Kowloon and the beginning of the universal six-year free education regulations, the annual expenses of secondary school students are not small, not including food expenses, and the cost of studying alone is 1,000 Hong Kong dollars less per semester.

If it is an ordinary family, the expenses of 2,000 a year can still be paid, but for these 173 people, the conditions in the family are too difficult.

There are 121 students, and they are still living in squatter huts in Kowloon or the New Territories.

What is a squatter house, simply put, is a temporary residence built by illegal occupation, and its construction is usually quite simple, mostly made of iron sheets and wooden boards, so it is also commonly known as iron houses, wooden houses.

These squatter houses are at least 20 years old, and when Hong Kong fell, a large number of houses were destroyed by the Japanese invaders, leaving countless families homeless, and had to get some timber or iron sheets to build temporary shelters.

Of course, there are still a large number of people who fled to Hong Kong because of the war in the mainland.

At that time, the housing management was not very strict, and the phenomenon of unauthorized construction and illegal construction occurred from time to time, and after the temporary residence was built, some people lived here for more than ten or twenty years.

Because they are far away from the city, most of them are in remote places, so the British government does not pay much attention to them and let them fend for themselves.

It was not until the fire in the Shek Kip Mei squatter area in Sham Shui Po on Christmas Eve in 1953 that 53,000 victims were left homeless.

This is also the cause of the later construction of housing estates in Hong Kong.

Estate construction is not something that can be solved in a day or two, and almost all of the housing estates are funded by the British government, and after the construction of large housing estates such as Tsz Wan Estate, the financial situation is already precarious.

Therefore, most of them turned a blind eye to the surviving squatter areas in Hong Kong, until MacLehose came to power a few years later and formulated the Home Ownership Scheme, which completely demolished all the squatter houses in Hong Kong, so that most people lived in cheap and modern public housing estates.

Most of these people are uneducated, and most of the jobs they do are hard work, and they don't have a high salary, and they have to raise a few children.

In Cheng Long's police story 1, there is a good scene of the squatter area, which is quite good, yards were built in the 80s, but now the squatter houses can not even block the rain except for a little shade from the wind.

......

On the Xiumao Ping in Kowloon, a slum house, built along the mountain, dense and disorganized.

Huo Yaowen followed closely behind Luo Qiaozhen and the two foundation investigators, ignoring the muddy mud on his feet, and walked to Xiumaoping with difficulty.

When he climbed up, Huo Yaowen found that there were many squatter houses in front of him, most of which were made of wood and iron sheets, which seemed to be safe and stable, but there were no beams and pillars, and they were not made of cement.

An employee said: "President, let's go over and ask someone to ask Wang Dahai, Chen Qing, and Ma Lulu's family members first, and then come over to inform you and Director Luo when we find me." ”

"Well, go ahead. Huo Yaowen nodded.

Xiumaoping's squatter area is quite large, not to mention more than 100 households, the chaotic buildings, and built by the mountains, the road conditions are narrow, plus there was a light rain in the morning, muddy, it is difficult to walk, Huo Yaowen is not doing anything to go down to the grassroots level, do face projects, and there is no need to toss himself in the summer, find a shady place, sit down and rest.

Luo Qiaozhen took a breath, climbed the mountain road for more than 20 minutes, and was indeed a little tired, walked to Huo Yaowen's side, found a clean stone and sat down, looked at the squatter area not far away, and said slowly: "I came here once, and I came with people from the Catholic Foundation last year. ”

Huo Yaowen glanced at Luo Qiaozhen, who was wearing a very smart casual dress today, and asked, "What are you here for? Teach doctrine or preach the gospel of God?"

Luo Qiaozhen glanced at him and said, "The gospel of God does not need to be preached, he is in people's hearts, I am a Catholic, so I don't want you to joke about this kind of thing." ”

Huo Yaowen raised his hand, indicating that he was unintentional, and then changed the subject: "The conditions here are so poor, why don't they move to the estate?

"Well, it's easier to apply for a housing estate, but they can't afford that rent. ”

Luo Qiaozhen sighed, she has been working in the Catholic Foundation for four or five years, she knows a lot about the situation in the squatter area, and said: "Most of the people who live here have no culture, and their sources of income are unstable. ”

Huo Yaowen was stunned and said: "No, if there are two people in the family who go out to work, even if they go to the dock to work as coolies, they can have one or two thousand a month." ”

"Yes, they can make some money a month, but they have too many children, and the expenses are too big to support them to move to the estate. Moreover, there are so many people applying for housing in the estate that I don't know when I have to wait in line. ”

Luo Qiaozhen remembers that last year, together with the Catholic Foundation, came to give these people some free food from the church, each family has at least three children or more, and there are a few elderly people in the family, so many mouths can be eaten just by eating.

After a pause, Luo Qiaozhen continued: "When I was a child, my family was well-off, and I never knew that there was such a poor place in Hong Kong, until I came back from studying law in England and worked as a lawyer at the Catholic Foundation, and I followed them to see the poor and backward side of Hong Kong, and I wanted to work hard to improve the lives of these people, but I worked for the Catholic Foundation for almost five years, and traveled all over Hong Kong's large and small squatter areas, as well as the squatter areas built on ships in Tai O, and finally understood a truth. ”

"What's the truth?" Huo Yaowen asked as she spoke.

Luo Qiaozhen glanced sideways at Huo Yaowen and said, "The real reason for their poverty is not money, but knowledge!"

She took a deep breath, spit it out again, and continued: "Only by learning knowledge can we get them out of poverty, and only then can they really get out of here." ”

Luo Qiaozhen saw that Huo Yaowen didn't speak, and said: "So after hearing my brother say that Mr. Huo you founded an education foundation and needed a lawyer, I directly resigned from the Catholic Foundation to work for you." I think that only by letting people here go into schools and learn knowledge can they completely get out of this poor place. ”

Huo Yaowen took a deep look at Luo Qiaozhen's side face, he didn't expect this beautiful female lawyer to have such a great idea, but he couldn't help but glance at her, and he understood in his heart why the other party didn't go to the law firm to make money with such a good identity as a lawyer, but came to his foundation as a resident lawyer, and served as a director for free.

"President Huo, Director Luo!"

At this time, an employee came running quickly, panting and said, "The student's home has been found, let's go over now!"

Huo Yaowen stood up, patted the dust on his buttocks, and said, "Well, let's go." ”

Luo Qiaozhen followed closely.

.....

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