and psychological independence. These centres provide what may be called in a good sense a semi-institutional setting, where nearly a hundred and sixty young women received instruction in cooking, tailoring, knit- ting, embroidery and beading or laundering during the year; sixty-four found work for themselves after training and another seventy in the Department's care got employment in factories, shops, offices or house- holds; over sixty others were married (see Appendix 22). A notable experiment in group work, amounting to group therapy, was introduced at the Chai Wan Centre, where ten girls with behaviour problems are being encouraged to discuss and thrash out these problems among them- selves at weekly sessions. Already these meetings seem to be proving really helpful to the participants.
88. Close liaison is maintained with two voluntary institutions, Pelletier Hall and the Po Leung Kuk. At Pelletier Hall the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, whose order has long specialized in this kind of work and has similar Homes in other parts of the world, provide residential care, education and domestic and vocational training for up to a hundred and sixty girls, mostly between the ages of 14 and 18, who have agreed to enter the home to learn a better way of life (see Appendix 23). They are taught hairdressing, English conversation, elementary book-keeping, cooking, tailoring and power-machine sewing, typing, knitting, launder- ing, commercial art and baby-care. At the end of the year land was granted near Aberdeen for a second Home to be run by the Sisters for girls in moral difficulties. The Po Leung Kuk, besides its work for children already referred to in paragraph 71, provided for thirty-two unmarried mothers and twelve of their children, while three others who required special care were looked after at other maternity homes.
89. Work in this section has a very special interest for social welfare practitioners with a close concern in the workings of the human mind, and despite the sordid nature of many of its problems and the brutalizing surroundings into which inquiries lead its officers, it remains a popular choice among recruits to the Department. It is evident therefore that lack of startling statistics of achievement does not mean frustration or a lack of sense of reward.
CHAPTER IX
OFFICIAL AND VOLUNTARY CO-OPERATION
90. The field of social welfare work provides the inquiring mind with some striking patterns struck from the characteristic Hong Kong
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