XN000022-1973-03-26 — Page 8

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Monday, March 26, 1973

LADY MACLEHOSE OPENS TRAINING CENTRE

Lady MacLehose today described the new Spastics Association

Training Centre in Sau Mau Ping as an attempt to provide the "optimum

solution" to the "many and conflicting demands" put on agencies caring

for handicapped children.

She was speaking at the opening ceremony of the Centre at Block 25

in Sau Mau Ping Resettlement Estate this afternoon.

She said there were about 30 agencies which had the care of

handicapped children as a major, or indeed their sole, concern.

"These agencies, sometimes quite small, fulfil a need in providing

help and expertise in certain fields."

The following is the full text of Lady MacLehose's speech:

"Miss Payne, Mr. Kvan, Friends of the Sau Mau Ping Centre:

"Thank you for your invitation to join you this afternoon.

For many years it has been characteristic of the social services in Hong

Kong that they have been the joint responsibility of Government and voluntary

agencies. There are, I believe, about thirty agencies which have the care

of handicapped children as a major, or indeed their sole, concern. A

few of them go back many years but most of them came into being during the

last twenty years or so. These agencies, sometimes quite small, fulfil

a need in providing help and expertise in certain fields.

"All those