SOCIAL WELFARE
195
close liaison and in many cases financial support from the Govern- ment through the Social Welfare Department; whereas legal powers for the care and protection of children and adoption questions are the direct concern of the Department. This follows the pattern which runs through social work in other fields.
The number of children abandoned on the streets was about twenty a month during 1959. These were usually small babies, nearly all girls; the reason was usually economic, combined in some cases with physical or mental defect. Orphans and children whose parents fail to care for them properly are admitted to the twelve children's homes and five babies' homes run by voluntary bodies. These include several institutions supported entirely within Hong Kong and controlled by Buddhist foundations or by boards of prominent citizens of Hong Kong. The largest of these, the Po Leung Kuk, which has been a refuge for children in need for the last eighty years has been reorganized and was giving shelter to 342 children at the end of the year. The other main group com- prises homes run by Christian missionary bodies, both Catholic and Protestant, some of them established for nearly a century. The largest and most modern Home, Children's Garden at Wu Kwai Sha on the shores of Tolo Harbour, was built on the cottage plan by the Christian Children's Fund with a substantial Govern- ment contribution. It housed over 800 children at the end of 1959, and provided a varied education and vocational training. The Homes together shelter about 2,100 children and 500 babies.
The need for day care of children of working mothers, many of them factory employees or unskilled labourers on low rates of pay, has been increasingly recognized; there are now nine nurseries, two creches and two play centres which were caring for some 1,340 children at the end of 1959 as compared with 450 at the end of 1958, and a number of voluntary bodies are planning to open new nurseries in the future. During the year, the Y.W.C.A. opened a roof-top play centre in the Shek Kip Mei Resettlement Estate, the Salvation Army opened a day nursery, medical clinic and voca- tional training centre in the Tai Hang Tung Resettlement Estate, and the Western Women's Welfare Club a day nursery at Bridges Street. Staff training facilities available to the various bodies which run children's homes, day nurseries, etc. were supplemented by a six months elementary child care course run by the Department