The Hong Kong government had picked out a site to set up a camp for Russian refugees at Chi Ma Wan on Lantau Island, but in the end decided not to build it. Instead, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and private charities including the World Council of Churches provided the funds for the refugees to be sheltered in private boarding-houses and to receive money to cover their other medical expenses. Their major destinations included Australia, Brazil, and Canada. Some who faced a long wait for resettlement found work as domestic helpers or on construction sites, in addition to receiving living allowances from the UN; young children also enrolled in schools. By 1980, a total of twenty thousand White Russians from China had passed through Hong Kong on their way to resettlement in overseas destinations.