now familiar to the young people of Hong Kong. Its value lies in the continuous genuine efforts of youths to discover and to develop their own initiative, fitness and skill. More than one thousand boys and girls have already taken part in the Scheme. The Boys' and Girls' Clubs Association provides recreation, informal education, and character training for children between the ages of eight and fourteen. It has more than ten thousand members in its one hundred and twenty-nine clubs and fourteen craft centres and forty-four other affiliated clubs. It also operates fourteen children libraries.
44. The Scouts Association Hong Kong Branch continues to expand its work and has embarked on its five-year plan of development, which involves the training of leaders, the development of new units, and the creation of more opportunities for service to others. It has also under- taken a series of recreational programmes open to non-scouts. The Association has now over thirteen thousand members aged from seven to twenty. The Girl Guides Association continues to develop with some three thousand five hundred members.
45. The Children's Playground Association concentrates on the provision of recreational facilities and activities for young people. It continues to provide organized recreation and library facilities at both the Southorn and Macpherson centres for children and youth, and started similar activities in the Rotary Youth Centre of the department at Fanling. Its Silvermine Bay Holiday Camp continues to be a popular resort for some 3,000 children each year. Caritas ran a Youth Welfare Centre on Cheung Chau Island and opened two youth centres, one in Hong Kong and the other in Kowloon, during the year.
46. The Youth and Children's Division of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service, the co-ordinating body of twenty-two voluntary youth agencies and three government departments (Education, Prison, and Social Welfare), had a busy year. It organized a Youth Festival and a Regional Youth Conference in November 1967. The Festival which lasted seven days was organized to present the work of the youth agencies to the public and to create opportunities for colony wide youth activities; the programme included static display, concerts and three Festival Balls at which over 2,000 young people had a most enjoyable evening. The regional Youth Conference catering for 10 days was attended by 43 delegates from 9 countries and has promoted tremendous interest and concern in the work with youth. They exchanged views
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