interests of the beneficiaries. One hundred and thirty-two cases of fatal and forty-two of non-fatal accident were investigated, and a hundred and ninety earlier cases were reviewed.
CHAPTER VI
FAMILY AND CHILD WELFARE
53. Many of the mothers of Hong Kong are working women and factory work makes it difficult for them to bring their young children below school age along with them; yet because the population is mainly young and largely immigrant there are often no older relatives at home who can look after the children. For this reason the chief child welfare need in Hong Kong is for more day care centres where little children may be looked after. At present there are thirty-five non-profit-making nurseries and twelve play centres, some sponsored by international agencies but most of them run by Hong Kong organizations. Seven nurseries for children from 2 to 6 and five play centres were opened during the year; almost eight thousand places are now provided in these day care centres, compared with about three thousand two years ago. In addition kindergarten schools accommodate about forty thousand. But the needs are still a long way from being met. UNICEF continues to give most valuable support in expanding day care; nearly HK$300,000 has been given towards equipping the existing nurseries, and a similar amount is expected for a further thirty day nurseries to be opened in the next two years. Without this UNICEF money, day care of pre-school children would hardly have expanded so rapidly.
54. With the encouraging increase in adoption into families and the smaller number of children abandoned, the Child Welfare Section of the Department is able to concentrate first on day care and secondly on short-term residential care of children whose families are temporarily unable to look after them properly; but there will unhappily always be a substantial minimum number of children who, because of handicap or otherwise, need long-term institutional care.
55. The economic and social independence of each family unit is an accepted aim of social work; but this is sometimes difficult to accom- plish in the unique Hong Kong setting. In pursuit of this object, various organizations direct their efforts towards the provision of loans or grants
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