The child city of Zirou Lake was designed and built by the Swiss Red Cross. There was a fence around the lake to prevent children from drowning but the city itself was not a ghetto. There was plenty of quality food and clean clothes; the facilities included a pigsty and a cabbage garden, washing and mending facilities, a theater, a church, and a stadium. There were 12 groups of 44 children each, with a woman in charge. These “mothers” were unmarried girls who left when they found a husband. The children woke up at 6am and went to school, while in the afternoon they learned various trades. The child city was slowly abandoned as the children grew up, with the last of them leaving in 1989.