Social_Welfare_Annual_Report_1958-1959 — Page 24

Rehabilitation and Physical Medicine of New York University, helped to stimulate the efforts of voluntary organizations in this field.

79. The Hong Kong Society for Rehabilitation, which arose out of a Sub-Committee of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service, has been granted land at Tai Ou Mun to establish a rehabilitation centre for about 100 physically handicapped persons.

80. The Handicapped Branch of the Boy Scouts Association has increased the number of its troops from five to nine, of which three each are for deaf and blind children, two for young crippled patients in Lai Chi Kok Hospital and the Sandy Bay Convalescent Home, and one for lepers at Hay Ling Chau,

81. The Special Welfare Services Section of the Department main- tains very close contact with all voluntary agencies engaged in work for the physically handicapped, keeps registers of disabled persons and con- cerns itself with their problems. By 31st March, 1959 there were 895 physically handicapped persons on the register of the department, of whom 146 were being assisted with relief food. Other forms of help consisted of recommendations for hawkers' licences and for the admission of children to Government schools and arranging for medical treatment.

82. At North Point Camp the Department continued to provide vocational training and sheltered work for eighty five physically handi- capped persons. During the year twenty cured leprosy patients from Hay Ling Chau Leprosarium were resettled in resettlement estates after a period of training in North Point Camp.

83. The total number of deaf persons registered has reached 687. A party for over 500 deaf persons organized by the Department in conjunction with the Sub-Committee on the Welfare of the Deaf of the Social Welfare Advisory Committee was a notable success. Items of entertainment were of particular value in demonstrating what the deaf are able to do. This party was followed by another held in September on m.s. Santhia when forty deaf children were taken on an educational tour of the ship and were treated to refreshments. A sample survey of 500 deaf persons carried out by the Special Welfare Services Section on behalf of the Sub-Committee on the Welfare of the Deaf revealed that there were 107 deaf children unable to get into a school and that the majority of the children seen during the survey were dumb as well as deaf. The Report of the Sub-Committee with its recommendations

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