Tuesday, May 30, 1972
A CAREER WITH THE SOCIAL WELFARE DEPARTMENT
Welfare Supervisors' Role In Correctional Institutions
About 50 officers of the grade of Welfare Supervisor are now
working in the Probation and Corrections Division of the Social Welfare
Department
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and all find the job rewarding in a special way.
Satisfaction comes from the realisation that in addition to
financial gain, there is the knowledge that one is helping to reconcile
delinquents to society so that a second chance becomes possible for most.
Mr. Mak Wing-hong, Principal Social Welfare Officer (Correctional
Institutions), says when the next advertisement for Welfare Supervisors
takes place to staff the Division's institutions, he hopes a description
of the duties and satisfactions implicit in their task will lead to the
enrolment of ideal recruits.
He explains that the job is a challenge, and applicants who are
interested merely because it is a more attractive financial proposition
than a clerkship, are the wrong applicants.
"In this field, as indeed in social welfare work in general, it
is one's personal contribution to the betterment of society that should
impel an applicant," he says.
A posting in the Division puts the Welfare Supervisor in direct
touch with youthful elements of Hong Kong's society who, for many reasons,
have rebelled against authority and fallen foul of the law.
In a moment of sometimes cruel reality, these young people find
themselves suddenly separated from their homes, temporarily dispossessed
of freedom, and placed in institutions where impersonal regimes must put
general welfare higher than the comforts of the individual.
/It is ...