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cases the family occupied bed spaces only, in thirty-two cases they enjoyed a whole room to themselves, while in the remaining eighteen two or more rooms were occupied.
5
It may thus be said that for those who think of their daily income in terms of cents the
bed space
is the most common unit of accommodation.
The inevitable outcome of the combination of poverty and over-crowding is malnutrition and disease among the children and poverty and disease accounted for two hundred and seventy-one of the three hundred and thirty-three cases investigated.
Where it has been clearly apparent that the poverty of the parents made it impossible for them to supply sufficient food for their children the Society has come to their aid.
It has in one hundred and forty-one cases supplied food, this in the great majority of cases taking the form of milk preparations for those of suitable age which incidentally enures to the benefit of the older children as it relieves the strain on the family purse.
There is no doubt whatsoever that the Society has thus been the means of saving the lives of a number of children and giving to others a more promising start in life.
In many cases children who were suffering from disease were found to be receiving no medical attention.
In one hundred and twenty-four such cases the necessary aid was secured by the Inspectors, and as the parents might be working from dawn to dark this not infrequently necessitated the Inspectors themselves taking the patients to the hospital or clinic.
The diseases most commonly encountered were bronchitis and pulmonary troubles, enteritis and dysentery, and diseases of the eyes and skin. During the hot weather many children were suffering severely from boils. In many cases doctors in charge of dispensaries asked that children suffering from marasmus might be provided with special diets.
Unhappily it cannot be stated that in all cases in which the Society has been called upon for help its assistance has resulted in saving the life of the child. The normal toll of death amongst the children of the Colony is heavy but apart from this it has been found that with tragic frequency the Inspectors have only been called in when the inroads of disease or starvation have rendered the case well-nigh hope- less. A further serious handicap has been the marked re- luctance of parents to permit their children to become in- patients in the hospitals even when the need was obvious and
Ї
urgent, and in several cases the parents have removed the children from the hospitals before there had been time for
a cure.
Many parents appear to regard the hospitals as places to which their children should be admitted only when all hope of recovery has been abandoned.
Nevertheless cures have been numerous even in cases in which the condition of the children has encouraged little hope of success,
Among the cases of poverty have been those of several of children who were destitute, homeless and either without realtives or whose relatives were wholly unable to support them. The policy of your Committee has been to place and maintain these children in institutions in which they will receive such vocational training as will enable them to become useful and self-supporting members of the community. The Society is now maintaining nine such children-details of some of the cases appear among the selected cases in this report.
Much unemployment has been encountered and in only four or five cases has the Society been able to secure ordinary employment for parents. In eighteen cases the Society has sought the aid of the police and has secured the grant of hawkers licences and provided stock, thus enabling the parent to become self-supporting.
As was anticipated, the number of reports of acts of physical violence towards children was small, there being only ten such reports during the year.
In six instances the case proved to be one of chastisement (not necessarily either excessive or undeserved) by the child's mother-in one case the victim freely admitted that the punishment was well merited.
+
In only one of the six cases was any mark of violence found. In this one case the mother had over-heavily spanked a misbehaving fifteen-month old child and had bruised him. This woman propounded the somewhat staggering doctrine that she had a perfect right to beat the child to death if she wished!
The child was found to be suffering from boils and prickly heat and to show indications of rickets and after the mother had received a sharp warning she was persuaded to allow him to go for two months to the hospital and orphanage at Shamshuipo and expressed surprise at the pleasing appearance of her progeny at the end of the stay!
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