42. At present residential care and training for girls are provided by four voluntary welfare organizations. These are the Po Leung Kuk, the Salvation Army's Kwai Chung Girls' Home, the Pelletier Hall and the Mary Stanton Centre of the Good Shepherd Sisters. The first three are also declared as places of refuge under the Protection of Women and Juvenile Ordinance, Chapter 213. They help girls with personal or family problems to re-establish a satisfactory relationship with their families and eventually to readjust themselves to normal life in the community. The number of girls and young women with be- haviour problems is on the increase evidenced by a total of 589 cases compared with 536 for the previous year (1971-72),
43. The Department itself runs two day centres for girls, the Chai Wan and Tung Tau Girls' Centres. These centres provide day-time pre-vocational training courses for girls who have behaviour or family/ personal problems, in order to help them acquire a sense of order- liness, positive working habits, self-discipline and achievement.
44. Close liaison was maintained with child care institutions and centres through departmental representation or professional com- mittees of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service as well as the Executive Committee of the organizations concerned. Apart from this, the department's Institutions Liaison Unit maintained regular contact with these institutions and centres through periodic visits.
45. Legal adoption of children is made in accordance with pro- visions of the Adoption Ordinance, Chapter 290, under which the Director of Social Welfare is required to advise the Supreme Court on the suitability of the adoptive parents. Adoption procedures were finalized for 333 children locally during the year and it is ao en- couraging sign that the waiting list of applicants now exceeds the number of children available for adoption. However, there is a small number of disabled children for whom suitable homes are difficult to find. Requests made by overseas families for the adoption of local children are considered by the Department in conjunction with two voluntary welfare organizations, namely, the International Social Service and Caritas. During the year 15 children were adopted abroad. (See Appendix 3.8).
46. On 10th May the Adoption (Amendment) Ordinance 1972 was passed under which a moratorium was imposed upon adoptions
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