ENG-1960 — Page 224

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SOCIAL WELFARE

At the end of the year a vocational training centre for girls in the care of the Department was set up in a resettlement estate. The object is to give training for employment, for instance in textile, weaving or knitting factories, to prostitutes and to young girls employed in dance halls or bars who appear likely to fall victims to the lure of an apparently glamorous and easy life and so drift into prostitution.

The Sisters of the Good Shepherd, who are specially trained for the rehabilitation of young prostitutes, give a two years' resi- dential course at Pelletier Hall. The girls, normally under 18 on entry, are educated and taught to earn a living and run a home of their own. 77 were admitted and 66 discharged during the year; most of them secured employment in high-speed machine-knitting factories. A reception-transit block for 30 was completed in September, where girls receive special observation and medical care when they first enter the Home and are helped to readjust themselves to the outside world before they leave. The capacity of the Home is now 150.

The Department also advises and helps unmarried mothers and their children; a refuge is provided for those who cannot afford fees in the Po Leung Kuk, and in another small maternity home. Nearly 100 unmarried mothers asked the Department for help, of whom about 20 were placed in these two institutions.

Counsel is also given to victims of indecent assault, in family cases involving incompatibility or some moral difficulty, and to adolescent girls who are in need of care and protection or are not amenable to parental control. Efforts are particularly directed to finding some stable form of work in such cases.

Care of the Physically and Mentally Handicapped. Increased attention is being given by Government and voluntary organiza- tions to the rehabilitation of handicapped persons; a special schools section was set up in the Education Department in April. The Special Welfare Services Section of the Social Welfare Depart- ment is responsible for the registration of the physically handi- capped, the blind and the deaf, and co-operates closely with voluntary organizations and other departments in taking practical steps for training and rehabilitation; the aim is to fit as many of the handicapped as possible to lead a normal life and to find employment in competition with others.