The other account sheet gives you a picture of the work done. A heavy charge is for rents. Some rents have gone up 50 per cent. and a point is being reached where the cheapest accommodation is too dear, yet there is nowhere else to go. As yet there are no camps for the foreign poor of Shanghai. Board and lodging is a heavy item because it so largely represents the maintenance of various old ladies, who have no home ties, and have become pensioners of the B.W.A. To three pensioner families the war has actually brought happiness, for the husbands have succeeded in finding good jobs, and two others have been given a home by a friend in another country. This meant a great relief to our funds.
Food is the next biggest item. There are so many families that are under-nourished, a term meaning that they are starving slowly. The results of under-feeding show both in school reports and in hospital and medical expenses. We do our best io ensure that there are adequate funds available to mothers to provide good food for their children. School fees, of course, bulk large in the Board's budget, for very little free education is available in Shanghai. It a child has a roof over his head, adequate food and a good education, he can face the future of self-maintenance with a fair degree of confidence. The Board also helps by paying the fees for specialized training of various sorts.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.