the request of the Kuk Committee (See Appendix 7). Of the other children's Homes in Hong Kong, three are run on the cottage system, each cottage having a 'family' under a house mother. The capacity of the 14 residential children's homes varies from 12 to 820. At the end of the year the total number of children in babies' and children's homes was 2,618, an increase of 133 over the figure for the previous year.
CHAPTER V
FAMILY WELFARE
23. Living conditions in the cities, especially conditions of housing and employment, have put severe pressure and strain upon traditional family life. Families whose forbears have lived in Hong Kong for a generation or two are accustomed to urban conditions but have tended in the last few years, save in the rare cases where their resources could resist this tendency, to have their living space progressively constricted by the influx of a million newcomers, while at the same time the struggle for employment at a living wage has become keener. The immigrant families, mostly accustomed to the slower, more close-knit life of the village, regulated by the seasons and steeped in customary lore, have been subjected to stresses and strains of an entirely unfamiliar character. Their capacity to adapt themselves to undreamed-of housing congestion and to completely strange occupations and to reconcile them- selves to a total break with their former life has been astonishing and must evoke admiration. But these drastic changes and severe strains have inevitably led to social casualties. The traditional family obligation to care for the weaker members, whether handicapped children or the aged and infirm, is perhaps somewhat less binding, though still remark- ably strong-save where it is sapped by sheer incapacity to feed or clothe those who cannot contribute anything to the family purse. Here the labours of the Family Welfare Society often serve to keep the family intact. This Society strives to treat the family as a unit and to buttress it at weak points with the constant object of helping it to regain economic independence. Through its team of case workers, who are trained to investigate thoroughly the circumstances of need, the Society assisted nearly ten thousand families during the year. The many loans of money, often made to help in buying the essential stock-in-trade of a small business, are nearly always faithfully repaid; in other cases school fees are met, clothes provided, medical treatment obtained or
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