ENG-1958 — Page 217

SOCIAL WELFARE

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for the most part be conveniently described under these six headings.

Infant and Child Welfare. Child welfare work in Hong Kong may be divided broadly between institutional care, including day care in nurseries or play centres, on the one hand and measures for the protection of children by virtue of the law or for customary or legal adoption on the other hand. Generally speaking, institu- tional and day care is undertaken by voluntary organizations, with close liaison and in many cases financial support from the Govern- ment through the Social Welfare Department; whereas legal powers for the care and protection of children and adoption questions are the direct concern of the Department. This follows the pattern which runs through social work in other fields.

The number of children abandoned on the streets was about twenty a month during 1958. These were usually small babies, nearly all girls; the reason was usually economic, combined in some cases with physical or mental defect. Such children, orphans and children whose parents fail to care for them properly are admitted to the thirteen children's homes and five babies' homes run by voluntary bodies. These include several institutions sup- ported entirely within Hong Kong and controlled by Buddhist foundations or by boards of prominent citizens of Hong Kong. The largest of these, the Po Leung Kuk, which has been a refuge for children in need for the last eighty years has lately been re-organized on modern lines and was giving shelter to 270 children at the end of the year. The other main group comprises homes run by Christian missionary bodies, both Catholic and Protestant, some of them established for nearly a century. The largest and most modern Home, Children's Garden, built on the cottage plan by the Christian Children's Fund with a substantial Government contribution, housed nearly 800 children at the end of 1958, and provided a varied education and vocational training. The Homes together shelter about 2,200 children and over 500 babies.

The need for day care of children of working mothers, many of them factory employees or unskilled labourers on low rates of pay, has been increasingly recognized; there are now five nurseries and two creches which were caring for some 450 children at the end of 1958, and a number of voluntary bodies are planning to