Social_Welfare_Annual_Report_1959-1960 — Page 32

are children under ten. It is expected that the population will reach 75,000 in two or three years' time.

71. Plans were in hand for the building of a second community centre at Tsuen Wan, to be financed by a donation of about HK$1,280,000 from the United Kingdom World Refugee Year Com- mittee. This building will be similar to the Wong Tai Sin Community Centre and is scheduled for completion in March 1961. The volun- tary welfare organizations which will operate in community centres will be concerned not only in running their own particular services but in promoting the growth of community activity and a sense of communal responsibility among the people of the area, in partnership with the Department.

72. Ground floor rooms in resettlement estates have also been allocated for welfare purposes and work commenced during the year at Wong Tai Sin and Li Cheng Uk Resettlement Estates. At Wong Tai Sin, the two wings of Block X were being used by four voluntary organizations as a case-work centre, a day nursery, a children's library, and a branch office of The Resettlement Estates Loans and Savings Association. The Department was running two Mothers' Clubs and two Recreation Centres for children who attend bi-sessional schools. The case-work service, the Mothers' Clubs and the Recreation Centres are to be transferred to the Wong Tai Sin Community Centre when it is completed and will be replaced by vocational training courses for the physically handicapped and for girls in moral danger. These courses will be run by the Department. At Li Cheng Uk Resettlement Estate, the American Friends Service Committee was allotted the ground floor of Block V (an I-shaped block) for group work with young workers and mothers, a day nursery, and a vocational training course.

73. At Tsuen Wan, a small centre was opened in November by the Department. The chief aim was to make the Department's existence more widely known, to study the needs of the area and to explore the possibilities of developing various activities in preparation for the opening of the new Community Centre mentioned in paragraph 71.

CHAPTER XIV

OFFICIAL AND VOLUNTARY CO-ORDINATION

74. The Social Welfare Advisory Committee, which is appointed by the Governor, is charged by its terms of reference with the task of advising Government on Social Welfare policy, with special reference,

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