Social_Welfare_Annual_Report_1954-1955 — Page 28

In addition, a number of T.B. patients and their families were helped by the Hong Kong Family Welfare Society with grants or supplementary nutrition.

68. Specialized services for the rehabilitation of the physically handicapped were operated largely by voluntary organizations all of which were subsidized by Government.

69. Two blind homes, run under voluntary auspices, (Ebenezer & Honeyville) between them catered for approxima- tely 120 blind persons, providing sheltered employment for 40 blind women and education for 80 blind children, of whom the older ones were given vocational training in knitting by hand and machine, rattan work, and weaving. Cantonese Braille was the main medium of instruction but English Braille was also taught, and the Ebenezer Home recently started a typing- class.

70. Comprehensive recommendations for the advancement of education, training, and welfare of the blind were submitted to Government in April, 1954 by the Social Welfare Advisory Committee's Sub-Committee on Welfare of the Blind, which carried out a socio-medical survey of 600 blind cases. Among the most important of its recommendations was the proposal for setting up a Hong Kong Society for the Blind. An officer from the Social Welfare Office was sent in March, 1955 for 6 months' training in blind welfare work in the U.K. to equip her for working with and guiding such a society in its initial stages. The number of non-institutional blind persons registered with the Social Welfare Office reached 700 by the end of March, 1955. Each new case discovered was referred to the Govern- ment eye-service for diagnosis and possible treatment.

71. Special educational treatment of deaf children is provided at 2 schools, both operated by voluntary organizations. During the year, the Hong Kong School for the Deaf, a boarding school grant-aided by the Education Department and the Social Welfare Office, accommodated 70 children who were given a primary school education which included a good training in handicrafts. Some of the children learnt to speak through

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