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SOCIAL WELFARE
understanding of the aims and value of social work. This public awareness cannot be recorded in precise statistical terms, but is nevertheless reflected in the increased number of applicants for social study bursaries at the University of Hong Kong and the response to the various ad hoc courses run by the Social Welfare Department and the voluntary agencies; it is also reflected in the higher levels of contribution to many voluntary funds and appeals. Publicity efforts were augmented at the professional level by the issue of a quarterly bulletin containing articles on social work in the Chinese language by the Chinese Literature Committee of the Hong Kong Council of Social Service.
In the field of infant and child welfare, recognition is given to the importance of the home and the family in the psychological and emotional development of children. Social workers strive to preserve the family unit and prevent its disintegration under stress and strain. When these efforts fail, steps are taken to provide children deprived of the normal family environment with the best available substitute. There are signs that fewer children are falling out of family care and becoming a charge on voluntary agencies or the public purse and, as already stated, there were decreases both in the number of babies abandoned and in the number of children in residential institutions during 1961. There were 181 applications for legal adoption in Hong Kong during the year; in arranging adoptions abroad, the international voluntary agencies concerned have been particularly active, so much so that the number of prospective overseas adopters on the waiting list now exceeds the number of children available for adoption.
The Family Welfare Society opened a new centre at Kwun Tong during the year, the eighth of the centres which it operates to assist families in economic and other difficulties. Meanwhile, other voluntary welfare agencies devoted much effort to supporting poor children in local homes by providing money, clothes, school materials and similar aid.
Some progress has also been made towards meeting the acute shortage of day care services for young children. Five day nurseries were opened, but in spite of these additions the total number of non-profit-making day nurseries is still only 19 with a joint capacity of under 2,500. The number of children between the ages of two and five in need of some form of day care is estimated to be in the
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