Earlier this month we told you how Liverpool Football Club would leave a lasting legacy in China by sponsoring the build of a new 'Habitat for Humanity' home for a low income family in Shanghai.
With the build now underway, LFC's Regeneration Director Andrea Titterington reports from Shanghai on how Liverpool Football Club are helping to change the lives of one family forever.
On a hot, sunny morning Eric Arndt, the Director for HFH China, met the Liverpool Volunteers for the 70 km journey out of Shanghai to Pinghu. Emerging from the densely populated city on a motorway bordered by new industrial premises, the dominant feature towering above the fields was the elevated track of the Maglev train that travels at over 450 kms per hour.
We entered Pinghu past factories making luggage and clothes which make the village more prosperous than many areas in China. We were quickly driving on small, dirt tracks through rice fields to reach the site of the derelict dwelling that is to be replaced by a new home for Ding Amao and his mother, Chen Gengen. Family houses around are new build, three-storey homes designed for 3 generations, many with solar panels. However, the walls of the family's house were made in 1975 with only rice porridge holding the bricks together.
Team Liverpool's first task was to knock the remaining wall down and clear the site - brick by brick, by hand. The first bit was easy. The latter took most of the day!
We must have seemed a strange bunch in our Habitat for Humanity/Liverpool Football Club tee shirts (which the Evertonians among us wore despite grave misgivings)! But it was soon clear that we were there to work very hard - stopping only for water and a wonderful lunch sourced locally.
By the end of the day, two trenches had been dug - ready for the contractor to start the brick foundations. We had also formed a close-knit team and received a very warm welcome from the family and their neighbours. We even made Mrs. Chen double up with laughter as we attempted collectively to say 'thank you' and 'good-bye' in Chinese.
In four weeks or so the house should have been completed by the contractor. We will keep you informed of progress.
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