SOCIAL WELFARE
193
Year. The broadsheet explains that any funds made available to the Hong Kong Government as a result of this world wide appeal will be used to embark on projects which could not otherwise be started for some time. Included in the list of such projects are six community centres and the expansion and improvement of existing facilities for the training of social workers. Already the United States Government has given the funds for the building of the first centre, work on which started in September, and funds for a second one have been promised by the United Kingdom National Committee. The United States Government has also donated con- siderable sums to the Government and to voluntary agencies for several other smaller projects.
These new community centres are designed not only to provide welfare facilities under one roof both for children of all ages and for adults but also to develop a community spirit and civic_con- sciousness among the inhabitants of the resettlement estates, most of whom have come from many different parts of China. In this more general purpose should lie their greatest value and impor- tance. In the first centre, at Wong Tai Sin Resettlement Estate, voluntary agencies will run vocational and trade training classes, a family case-work centre, a day nursery and play centre for children between the ages of two and seven, and group work for young persons; while the Social Welfare Department will be re- sponsible for libraries for children and adults, social clubs for the blind and the deaf, a mothers' club, the organization of games and the general administration of the centre, and, in conjunction with the Council of Social Service, for the basic training of social workers.
Hong Kong is fortunate in having a large number of voluntary agencies covering almost the whole field of social work and running nearly all the colony's residential institutions, such as orphanages and homes for the blind and the aged. Most of the agencies are member organizations of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service which not only assists in co-ordinating their work and preventing overlapping but initiates new projects or new societies. During the year the Resettlement Estates Loan and Saving Association was founded and is now doing most valuable work in making loans to families in two of the bigger resettlement estates, who would otherwise be forced to borrow money at