Society for the Protection of Children and other agencies render valuable assistance to many thousands of other families. This is only a representa- tive list, and as may be seen in Appendix 6 some of these organizations receive support from the government by way of subvention. Another form of financial aid is through the individual sponsorship of school children by Foster Parents Plan Incorporated, which again helped to pay school fees for more than seven thousand one hundred children during the year; its programme also includes private medical care for entire families, cash assistance for the special needs of individual families and guidance in many family problems. Several other agencies and a number of funds support more than twenty thousand children in school. The Hong Kong Society for the Protection of Children provides residential care for ninety babies in its creche, its day nurseries cater for over three hundred children of ages ranging from 2 to 6 years, while its bathing and weighing section looks after more than two hundred babies in arms, each of whom is taken by his own mother to one of the society's centres at least once a week. There the baby is weighed, bathed and treated for any minor ailment and the mother is advised on child care and hygiene and provided with a week's supply of milk and vitamins.
49. The number of babies abandoned by their families has continued to fall, from fifty-three to forty-three in the past year; this compares with over two hundred eight years ago-see Appendix 8. Adoption of children under the Adoption Ordinance Cap 290 increased slightly in 1966-67. (Details of adoptions are given at Appendix 9) but the number of successful applications for adoptions received from overseas fell. Two international agencies, International Social Service and Catholic Relief Services, continued to act as sponsors in these cases. During the year seventy-three children left for adoption abroad, as against almost two hundred fifty in 1960-61 and one hundred and sixteen last year (see Appendix 10),
50. The causes of juvenile mendicancy are numerous; they are frequently to be found in socially inadequate parents, broken homes, lack of attention in the home or of proper education, influence of bad associates, behaviour problems, financial difficulties or poor housing con- dition. Officers of the Child Welfare Section pay home visits to study the whole background of young beggars and try to find out their real needs and help them to solve their difficulties in more dignified ways. The voluntary institutions mentioned in paragraph 43 are a valuable resource to be able to turn to.
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