Social_Welfare_Annual_Report_1948-1954 — Page 33

were made through the voluntary Chinese Committee towards the eventual repatriation to Taiwan of all these ardent Nationalist inmates.

14.

Emergency Relief statistics can be found at Appendix

CHAPTER XII

WELFARE OF THE PHYSICALLY OR MENTALLY HANDICAPPED

57. During the period 1948-54 there were, apart from the hospitals, no institutions specializing in the care of cripples in Hong Kong. Because of this the hospitals had from time to time to keep on crippled children-who ought not to have been occupying a bed in a ward-until some other arrangement could be made for them. An additional cause for concern over crippled children was the danger that they would be enticed, or taken away, to be exploited by professional beggars. As a purely emergency measure the Social Welfare Office managed to make room for a few of these children in its North Point Relief Camp. The Po Leung Kuk accepted a few. These children were at least assured of board, lodging, some playmates, and a little education, even though there were none of the facilities or trained staff that would be needed if any attempt was to be made to help them to become self-reliant and useful citizens.

58. Some destitute adult cripples who by virtue of long residence had a claim on the Colony were also, as a temporary expedient, accepted by the Social Welfare Office as North Point Camp inmates; others, if their disabilities prevented them from attempting to earn their own living, qualified for outdoor relief in the form of one free meal a day at one of the Social Welfare Office, Welfare Centres.

In the meantime, plans for a Welfare Centre for the Disabled were well in hand, the purpose of the centre being to train the physically disabled to whatever skills might be possible with their varying types and degrees of disability, and then encourage and help them to become as far as possible productive and independent members of society.

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