Social_Welfare_Annual_Report_1960-1961 — Page 22

flour, cornmeal and milk powder, were processed into noodles to make them fit in more readily with the Cantonese diet. Catholic Relief Services and some of the Kaifong Associations manufactured about 4,500,000 pounds of such noodles during the year. Reconstituted liquid milk was also distributed to poor children through nine milk bars operated by Church World Service and the milk bar and mobile van operated by the Lutheran World Federation.

59. Apart from being responsible for the six welfare centres and for a kitchen on each side of the harbour where many thousands of hot meals can be cooked at short notice, the Relief Section of the Department runs a camp at North Point which provides temporary shelter for aged destitutes, the physically handicapped, mentally defec- tive children, non-infectious tubercular cases, cured lepers, shipwrecked sailors and British subjects awaiting repatriation. During their stay at the camp, the inmates are encouraged to participate in vocational classes in carpentry, sewing, printing, rattan weaving and gardening or to do embroidery, bead-stringing or knitting in the sheltered workshop. (See Appendix 15 for further details). There are special classes for the 50 mentally defective children in the camp and informal classes for the normal children of inmates. The camp admitted 179 persons and dis- charged 172 persons, leaving a total of 373 inmates at the close of the

year.

60. The Section is also responsible for the initial investigation of cases of attempted suicide referred by the Police; 549 such attempts were reported during the year compared with 724 during the previous year. Details are shown at Appendix 16.

61. With the rapid development in light industrial undertakings in the Colony, the problem of industrial accidents is one that has to be faced. While the welfare of industrial workers is primarily the concern of the Labour Department-and attention is invited to that Depart- ment's annual report-the Special Welfare Services Section of this Department is responsible for investigating the family circumstances of workers killed or severely disabled in industrial accidents with a view to advising on the payment of compensation under the Workmen's Compensation Ordinance. During the year 114 cases of fatal and 38 cases of non-fatal accidents were investigated as against 80 and 13 respectively in the previous year. Where the Workmen's Compensation

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