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The baby became ill and the mother has to remain at home to care for it, so her wages are lost and the income is now $12 a month for five persons. The Society is supplying milk during the child's illness and the mother's compulsory unemployment.
Plaint No. 157. By the death of her husband a woman was left destitute with her two children. For a month she lived by begging and was trying to sell one of the children when a neighbour advised her to come to the Society.
A hawker's licence and stock were obtained for her and the family was assisted until the woman's earnings were enough for its support.
Plaint No. 113.—A widow was left destitute with five children. They slept in the street at Kennedy Town and lived on alms till someone told her of the Society. Then she begged outside the Society's office so as to attract the attention of the Inspector.
The woman and two of the children were ill and all were under-fed,
A lodging was found for the family and the necessary medical treatment procured. The woman was given a hawker's licence and stock and helped with food.
The eldest son, aged 13, was placed in the St. Louis Industrial School where he is learning a trade and the second son, aged 10, is attending there as a day scholar until old enough to receive vocational training.
Plaint No. 173.-This was a typical case of bad housing conditions. A coolie earning about $10 a month was found living with his wife and their child aged one year in a dark and airless bed space under a stairway. For this accommoda- tion he paid $2.30 per month. The mother was suffering from tuberculosis.
Plaint No. 115. Of all those who had proper roofs to cover them the family in this case had the worst accom- modation found during the year. The mother with her son aged five years and an ailing baby lived in a narrow, window- less room which served as a fuel store and also as a latrine for five families.
More healthy quarters were found by the Society and food provided and a licence and stock supplied.
Plaint No. 107.-A woman and her son aged sixteen were suffering from leprosy and when the case was reported to the Society were living as outcasts in circumstances of dire poverty in a mat hovel on the shore of one of our bays.
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Through the Inspector General of Police arrangements were made for their removal to a leper colony where the Society is now maintaining them.
Plaint No. 130.-The police found a boy aged ten living under a verandah in Nathan Road. He was an orphan and was living by begging from the patrons of Cinema theatres. The Society has placed him in the St. Louis Industrial School.
Plaint No. 138. A boy in one of the villages was left destitute on the death of his father. He was sent to the Society by the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs and is now being maintained in the St. Louis Industrial School where he is learning carpentry.
Plaint No. 126.-A girl aged thirteen stated that she had been sold as a mui tsai when a little child.
The persons with whom she was living wished to send her to Annam to a woman who claimed to be her mother. The girl denied the relationship and said she believed that she would be forced to become a prostitute. She sought the protection of the Society which is now maintaining her in an orphanage.
Plaint No. 179.—This case disclosed an interesting super- stition.
A mother had lost four children by death in infancy. When the Inspector saw her week-old child it was wrapped up in oddments of adults' clothing. The mother hoped that by avoiding infants clothing and always dressing the child in that of adults it might survive the perils of infancy. Under the Inspector's supervision and advice the child survives and is doing well-in infant's clothing.
Plaint No. 112.-In May the Central Dispensary Doctor reported that this child, aged 17 months, was suffering from marasmus and said he had little chance of recovery. He was pale and literally like a skeleton.
He was one of a family of five children whose parents' income was $15 a month. The mother and younger children occupied a bed space, the rest of the family had to sleep out in the street.
The child was put on a diet of Glaxo and is now doing finely so well that the mother has sent his photograph to the Society.
Plaint No. 133. This case illustrates the difficulty which is sometimes found in persuading parents to get medical attention for sick children.
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