VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATIONS AND KAIFONGS
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they really lack the funds to employ professionally qualified staff. Therefore, many Kaifongs ran into financial problems soon after their establishment. Their activities are therefore not only conducted on a charitable basis. Some have organized recreational and educational classes, charging participation fees for them, and others run large-scale fee-paying schools.
On the other hand, the work of the Kaifongs is very much under the influence of Government policy, although theoretically the Kaifongs are independent associations. In the 1950s the Hong Kong Government was relying a great deal on the voluntary organizations for providing social welfare, because the Government itself had limited financial resources during the post-war years. However, when a Social Welfare Department was established in 1958, it seemed that the Government was ready to extend its own hand over many branches of welfare work. A special section for Community Organization was formed within the new Department, the specific purpose of which was to organize and assist residents in community development projects. Thus, again with Government encouragement, the Kaifongs began to change their emphasis to community organization in the early 1960s. Both the Government and the Kaifongs' attention was caught by the so-called youth problem, considered to have reached threatening proportions after the 1966 Riots. Earlier the 1961 Census had shown that 50% of Hong Kong's population was below 21 years of age and that 40% were under 15 years of age. The youth programme has thus claimed a good deal of both the Government's and the Kaifongs' effort in the present decade.
In addition, the Kaifongs have increasingly made representations to the Government. Such representations cover mainly social and economic policies, particularly those concerning local Kaifong districts, such as involving urban renewal, public health and sanitation, and business control. Although the Kaifongs have always claimed to be representatives of public opinion, before the 1960s the Kaifongs mainly transmitted Government policies to the general public. They also helped the Government departments in organizing community drives such as Road Safety, Keep Your City Clean campaigns, Anti-epidemic campaigns etc. But they had seldom exerted any pressure over Government decision-making. But since the mid-60s, particularly since the 1966 and