144
SOCIAL WELFARE
88 in 1965, compared with 114 in the previous year. In accordance with the Adoption Ordinance, an Adopted Children Register is maintained by the Registrar of Births and Deaths at the General Register Office. Altogether 123 adoptions have been registered since the first entry was made on 22nd July 1957.
Other services such as sponsorship of school fees, cash grants, clothing and equipment are provided on an increased scale for needy children by a number of voluntary agencies. During the year more than 57,000 children benefited in this way.
WELFARE OF WOMEN AND GIRLS
The ready opportunity for easy money in a community as cosmo- politan as Hong Kong, together with the pressures of overcrowding which tend to restrict life at home for older children, may leave young people-particularly girls and young women-vulnerable to exploitation and moral dangers which, in their immaturity and inexperience, they are not able to resist without the counsel and guidance of a social worker.
Parents, and the young people themselves, are encouraged to discuss such problems with case workers of the women and girls section of the department as early as possible, so that girls may be guided back to a more acceptable way of life. An unmarried mother's most pressing need may be for accommodation and medical atten- tion, which the case worker is often able to arrange. In this way the girl's immediate anxiety is relieved and she is better able to act in a responsible way toward herself and her baby, and eventually to return to life in the community.
Two vocational day training centres cater for about 200 girls who are taught various vocational skills and encouraged to discuss their difficulties within a group. In addition, institutional care and train- ing are offered by two voluntary institutions-Pelletier Hall and the Po Leung Kuk.
THE DISABLED
In the spring, the ILO Asian Regional Adviser on Vocational Rehabilitation, Mr H. A. Jones, spent some time during an advisory mission in Hong Kong in considering problems of the disabled. A new vocational training centre for 1,000 was opened at Kwun Tong