XN000022-1972-05-30 — Page 3

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 ...