Social_Welfare_Annual_Report_1971-1972 — Page 16

International Social Service and CARITAS. During the year 14 children were adopted abroad as compared with 32 the previous year. (See Appendix 13 and 14).

43. Children may be adopted in accordance with local Chinese customs and traditions and therefore without recourse to a court order. To avoid abuse, female children so adopted are automatically placed under the guardianship of the Director of Social Welfare, in accordance with the provisions of the Protection of Women and Juveniles Ordinance, Chapter 213, and each adoption is registered. The number of these registered adoptions decreased from 11 in 1970-71 to one during this year. The registration of male children adopted in accordance with local Chinese customs is not required by law; one such adoption was registered voluntarily during this year. (See Appendix 15).

44. Pre-vocational training and residential care for girls are provided by four voluntary welfare organizations. These are Pelletier Hall, the Po Leung Kuk, the Salvation Army and the Mary Stanton Centre. The first three are also declared as Places of Refuge under the Protection of Women and Juveniles Ordinance, Chapter 213. They help girls with personal or family problems to re-establish a satisfactory relationship with their families and eventually to readjust themselves to normal life in the community.

45. The Department itself runs two day centres for girls, the Chai Wan and Tung Tau Girls' Centres. These provide pre-vocational training courses for girls who are unfit for ordinary schools or who have behaviour problems, thus helping them to acquire a sense of orderliness, self-discipline and self-adjustment.

REHABILITATION

46. In the field of rehabilitation the Department continued to aim at providing the opportunity to disabled persons to become as far as possible independent and self-supporting members of the community.

47. The Department is concerned with the rehabilitation of four main groups of disabled persons, namely, the mentally retarded, the blind (or visually impaired), the deaf (or hard of hearing) and the physically handicapped. Social and vocational rehabilitation services are provided in institutions, clubs, centres and workshops administered by the Department and by voluntary welfare organizations.

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