Social_Welfare_Annual_Report_1966-1967 — Page 14

may benefit from safer and healthier housing at reasonable rents but the move poses other problems for them, not least of which, perhaps, is a further loss of identity as they merge in the anonymous backdrop of Megalopolis. There may be little feeling of neighbourliness towards those next door, let alone those on the adjacent floor or the block opposite, and perhaps very little leisure for cultivating relationships. In the older parts of the twin cities where foetid overcrowding is the rule rather than the exception the basic situation is not much different. Such conditions present formidable difficulties. The rootlessness widely recognized to be typical of these years of remarkable development is dangerous, and exposes a population to irresponsible influences.

14. The Youth Welfare Section (a title which is likely seen to become-more realistically-Community and Group Work Division) is making an important contribution, through its community and social centres set up in certain resettlement estates and new towns, towards the stimulation of the idea of community. Its work has so far been concentrated on bringing together people who live in the area by providing a variety of welfare services and leisure activities, from shar- ing in which and in the management of joint activities. They may pro- gressively develop an interest in and a sense of responsibility for their neighbourhood and their neighbours. The first centre at Wong Tai Sin Estate near the Airport is now seven years old; the second is in the industrial town of Tsuen Wan; the third was opened in 1964 at Kwun Tong and the fourth at Tai Hang Tung in March, 1966. Planning is in progress for others at Yuen Long in the New Territories and at Chai Wan on Hong Kong Island. The latter will be built with money donated in Hong Kong during World Refugee Year and the Yuen Long Centre with a grant from the Lotteries Fund.

15. At the Wong Tai Sin, Tsuen Wan and Tai Hang Tung Centres, the Maryknoll Sisters, the Hong Kong Young Women's Christian Association and the Lutheran World Service respectively provide a day nursery for two hundred children between the ages of two and six who need care while their parents are at work; the British Commonwealth Save the Children Fund provides a Play Centre and Nursery for six hundred children at Kwun Tong; the Chinese Young Men's Christian Association organizes a variety of group activities for young people in the Wong Tai Sin and Tsuen Wan centres, two hundred or more of whom come together every evening for dancing or sports or to develop other interests or skills. Practical training classes are run in the repairing of electrical appliances, domestic equipment and motor cars by the Hong

8

00