Social_Welfare_Annual_Report_1959-1960 — Page 17

1960, running 196 Junior Clubs with a membership of nearly 11,000, including the 17 clubs with a membership of 450 run by the Youth Welfare Section of the Department (see Appendix 8 for further details).

27. For those children who attend bi-sessional schools and are con- sequently free either during the morning or during the afternoon, three experimental recreational centres were organized in two resettlement estates by the Youth Welfare Section, where 200 children spend two or three hours daily at organized games or film shows or are encouraged to develop their own particular interests or hobbies.

28. The Boy Scouts, numbering over 6,000 members in Hong Kong, were represented by a contingent of 62 at the Tenth World Jamboree held in Manila in July. An extensive programme of training was carried out by a training team of 37, amounting to a total of 714 courses. In some of the advanced courses new techniques and methods were adopted on advice from Commonwealth Headquarters. Specially pre- pared Chinese leaflets were used for the first time. The Girl Guides❜ Association, numbering over 2,000 members, continued to expand. The Trainer from the United Kingdom completed a most successful year's work in November 1959. By the time of her departure a local team of twelve, two of whom were also Camp Trainers, had been trained to continue this important work. Members were busy raising funds in a variety of ways to pay for the cost of a stone cottage for a refugee family, as their contribution to World Refugee Year.

29. Children's libraries, of which there are now 20 in operation, once again proved to be very popular, particularly with those who cannot afford to buy books and cannot get into school. The Hong Kong Junior Chamber of Commerce who are pioneers in this field equipped and stocked another library, at Tai Hang Tung Resettlement Estate, and handed it over to the Salvation Army to operate. The Boys' and Girls' Clubs Association established two libraries, at the Housing Authority's Estate of Sai Wan Chuen and at Wong Tai Sin Resettle- ment Estate. Another, at Lo Fu Ngam Resettlement Estate, was established by the China Guild Welfare Research Institute. The mobile library van presented to the Department by the Hong Kong Junior Chamber of Commerce continued to serve children, and some adults, in the New Territories. Fifteen different districts were visited regularly and the village elders were most helpful and co-operative in enabling the fullest use to be made of this service. The Jaycees continued their efforts to arrange for the production and supply of suitable Chinese reading material for children.

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