SOCIAL WELFARE
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charge during the holidays of the recreation of groups of primary age children from crowded resettlement areas.
A great number of young people join the Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme and are encouraged to use their own initiative and imagination in circumstances calling for independent thought and quick action. Every day 600 children find enjoyment in games organized by the Children's Playground Association in the War Memorial and Queen Elizabeth youth centres. This work can only be successfully carried out through the initiative of such organi- zations as the YMCA, YWCA, Scouts, Guides, Boys' and Girls' Clubs Association, and the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups, strongly supported by the department.
CHILD WELFARE
The need for day care services for young children of working mothers is still a long way from being met, and the department continues to encourage voluntary agencies to set up day nurseries. During the year 12 new nurseries and two play centres were opened. There was a total of 12,100 places in day care centres, compared with 9,500 in 1964.
Emphasis is laid on strengthening the family unit and helping to keep the family intact. Institutions are therefore now being used increasingly for short-term care only, the objective being the early return of children to their own families or their entry into new families through adoption. Residential homes for babies and children provide 2,800 places for orphans or children whose parents cannot care for them.
A children's reception centre run by the department cares for children who are found abandoned or wandering. Their special physical and psychological needs are investigated and their be- haviour and growth observed and recorded, as background to a plan for each child's future. Of 176 children who left the centre during the year, 11 were adopted into families, either in Hong Kong or overseas. The number of babies abandoned fell to 56, compared with over 200 six years ago and 91 in 1964. A total of 116 children were adopted in Hong Kong in 1965 under the Adoption Ordin- ance 1956, compared with 112 in 1964. Overseas adoptions totalled