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HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT
The main handicap to the more rapid development of welfare work in Hong Kong, after lack of funds (which is also not unusual in other territories), is the serious shortage of trained and well-qualified staff. The University of Hong Kong has been conducting a Social Science course for some years now, but the number of students who come forward is small, and it would appear that social work as a career is too exacting physically and emotionally, and too little re- warding financially, to attract many aspirants. To offset this unsatisfactory state of affairs, the amount and quality of purely voluntary-as opposed to professional-welfare work is quite surprising, and cannot be too highly spoken of.
Infant and Child Welfare. Statutory functions for the protection of children are exercised by the Social Welfare Officer on behalf of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs, under the Protection of Women and Juveniles Ordinance. The main purpose of this Ordinance is to safeguard the interests of all girls under twenty-one years of age who are in need of care and protection, and of those who have been adopted. There are now 6,359 children whose welfare is supervised by the Children's Officers of the Social Welfare Office. Of these, 1,795 are adopted daughters (registration compulsory), 133 are wards of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs, 1,389 are voluntarily registered adopted sons, whilst the rest are children in need of care and protection, including those found abandoned, begging, beyond control, etc. The Social Welfare Office works in very close liaison with the Po Leung Kuk, which is a declared place of refuge, mainly in connexion with work under the Protection of Women and Juveniles Ordinance.
The care of orphans, abandoned children, and children deprived of a normal home life is largely in the hands of voluntary children's institutions, of which there are 35, in- cluding orphanages, babies' homes and nurseries. A number of these children's homes receive annual Government grants. There are now well over 2,000 children being cared for in