Social_Welfare_Annual_Report_1958-1959 — Page 12

paying home visits the staff of the department can usually ensure that these girls are not being exploited. 102 adoptions of girls were registered with the department during the year, whilst the figure for boys adopted, the registration of which is not compulsory, was sixty four. (See Appendix 5).

24. The number of children leaving the Colony for adoption abroad, usually in the United States of America, is increasing. The International Social Service, a body which specializes in arranging such adoptions and has consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council, opened a branch office in Hong Kong in March 1958. Some adoptions abroad were also arranged by the Catholic Relief Services organization. Children so adopted are usually without parents or legal guardians and are made wards of the Supreme Court, which then appoints the Director of Social Welfare the legal guardian with power to consent to adoption abroad. A total of 124 children left the Colony for adoption abroad during the year.

25. Not the least of the duties of the Child Welfare officers is that of maintaining effective liaison with children's institutions, such as babies' homes, creches, day nurseries and orphanages, a list of which is given at Appendix 7. 568 of the children in the care of the department were admitted to seven of these institutions during the year, the majority going to the Po Leung Kuk, a long established Chinese institution for children and girls in need of care and protection, with which the department has a close connexion. (See Appendix 8). Children received into the care of the Po Leung Kuk are now divided into two categories: short-term and long-term. Three of the orphanages are run on the cottage system, each cottage having a 'family' under a house mother. The 'Children's Garden' at Wu Kwai Sha in the New Territories is the largest home of this kind for children in the Far East, and when finally completed will have ninety five cottages accommodating 1,200 children. At the end of the year the total number of babies and children in babies' homes and orphanages was 2,485, an increase of twenty one over the figure for the previous year.

CHAPTER IV

YOUTH WELFARE

26. The Youth Welfare Section of the Department is responsible for the promotion of group work for children and young persons between the ages of 8 and 21, in particular for those not in school, of whom

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