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SOCIAL WELFARE
Service is to build and administer yet another Community Centre from funds raised locally by the Council.
A large number of voluntary agencies are given accommodation in the new resettlement estates, both in the community centres and elsewhere, to undertake welfare and community activities; their contribution to the welfare of the people is of leading im- portance. Services include a loans association run by the Council of Social Service, nurseries run by the Maryknoll Sisters, Save the Children Fund, and Salvation Army, children's milk bars operated by Church World Service, and many other activities. The Friends' Service Committee has recently started a nursery and clubs for young people and mothers in one_estate.
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The Child and The Family. The full development of any child as a person is normally best achieved in the environment of the family and the home; social workers therefore strive first to support the family unit and to prevent its disintegration under psycho- logical or economic stress and, failing that, to provide the child who is deprived of the affection of its own parents with the best substitute available.
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Various agencies contribute to the support of families in Hong Kong: the Society for Protection of Children guides mothers in the proper care of infants up to 18 months old and takes in under-nourished babies for a few months of special feeding; it has recently opened a sixth centre and crêche, and over 30,000 babies benefited from its work during the year. The Family Welfare Society seeks to relieve economic and other stresses and to set families on their feet as units that can make their own way; the Society's trained caseworkers assisted twelve thousand families during the year. Foster Parents' Plan helped to maintain and educate 1,335 children in very poor families.
Many thousands of mothers have to go out to work every day to earn for the family, leaving small children uncared-for in very cramped living conditions or on the streets. This results in a widespread need for day nurseries, which can provide space for healthy play and sleep, good food and proper care for a small fee; some 2,200 children are now able to find a place in nurseries and play centres, about a thousand more than a year ago; a number of religious bodies, and also the three Women's Welfare