Provided that the economy of the Colony continues buoyant and main- tains itself in relation both to the soaring population which is in prospect and to the inevitable rise in the demand for work (as to-day's teeming children and adolescents become to-morrow's adolescents and adults), there may be hope that such a constructive approach will keep relief commitments in the future at their present comparatively low level- provided also that sufficient social workers with proper training in casework are available.
73. The Relief Section maintains seven welfare centres and two kitchens, through which the staff bring a casework service to those in need and provide relief feeding. The welfare centres are at Yau Ma Tei, Sham Shui Po and Wong Tai Sin in Kowloon; at Happy Valley, Hos- pital Road, Sai Ying Pun and Chai Wan on Hong Kong Island; and at Tsuen Wan in the New Territories. The Centre at the Chai Wan Resettle- ment Estate was opened in December, replacing an old hutted centre in Shau Kei Wan. The two kitchens, one at Happy Valley and the other at Hung Hom, are capable of producing cooked food in quantity at short notice, and can jointly provide a hundred and eleven thousand meals a day.
74. While public assistance for destitutes as such is an accepted responsibility of the Government, a number of voluntary agencies provide supplementary feeding on a considerable scale. Chief among these agen- cies are Catholic Relief Services, Church World Service, the Co-operative for American Relief Everywhere Inc., Lutheran World Service and the Seventh Day Adventist Welfare Service. These five agencies together distributed during the year almost thirty-four million pounds of surplus foodstuffs donated by the United States Government. Increasing amounts of these foodstuffs, mainly flour, powdered milk, rice and bulgar wheat, are being channelled into providing milk and meals for school children. The Children's Meals Society at Hung Hom provides twelve thousand heavily subsidized ten cent lunches a day for poor Kowloon school children and there are outline plans to increase this to twenty thousand meals a day, although the society is meeting some difficulties in raising funds. This setback is apparently due in part to an over-optimistic in- terpretation by overseas contributory agencies of the colony's industrial successes and attractiveness as a tourist centre. But there is no doubt that some school children are still under-nourished, however much the numbers and extent of the problem may be in scientific dispute because
30
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.