18. The safeguarding of infant health was of much im- portance. Far fewer babies were abandoned than in previous years on account of more wide-spread relief activities but among these were some seriously sick babies whose abandonment was due to the failure, through ignorance, on the part of their parents to seek proper medical attention for them.
19. Seven voluntary homes, all but two of which were government-subsidized, admitted abandoned infants or babies whose parents were incapable of looking after them. Adoptions whenever suitable were encouraged and arranged in conjunction with the Child Welfare Section of the Social Welfare Office. By this means a good many of these babies were again able to have a normal home-life.
20. Apart from the Society for the Protection of Children's Creche which, in the main, looks after under-nourished infants, two day-nurseries were in operation. The Faith-Hope Nursery which began to function on 16.7.54 catered daily for 100 toddlers from the Homantin Resettlement Area whose mothers were mostly at work as hawkers or were engaged in cottage industry. Financed by the Church World Service, it was managed by the Y.W.C.A. which also conducted a nursery at Shamshuipo for 50 infants.
21. Protection of infants against ill-treatment, trafficking and other offences is covered by the Protection of Women & Juveniles Ordinance No. 1 of 1951 which is described in more detail in the chapter on Child Welfare.
CHAPTER V
CHILD WELFARE
22. The main legislation providing for the care of children who have been parted permanently from their parents or whose parents or guardians are incapable of looking after them, is contained in the "Protection of Women & Juveniles Ordinance
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