ENG-1963 — Page 249

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SOCIAL WELFARE

Welfare Department should register the blind and work for their welfare. By the end of 1963 the number of the blind registered with the Department reached 4,003. Educational provision im- proved gradually, receiving impetus from the setting up in 1960 of the special schools section of the Education Department. As a result of the expansion of the Canossa School for Blind Girls and the Ebenezer School and Home for the Blind there is now a school place for every blind child. With the exception of Singapore, Hong Kong is the only country in Asia which can make this claim.

The social aspects of rehabilitation require the social worker to co-operate with the handicapped individual in helping him to adjust himself to his situation, compensate himself for his disability and develop a capacity to live satisfactorily with himself and others. To this end the Social Welfare Department operates a casework service and nine clubs in three centres catering for a total of 374 blind persons. Those who can be trained for employ- ment are referred to the Hong Kong Society for the Blind, whose industrial workshop for 200, opened during the year, was con- sidered by Mr J. F. Wilson, Director of the Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind who visited Hong Kong in July, to be a model for Asia.

Schools for the deaf served only 220 children when a sub- committee on welfare of the deaf was appointed in November 1957 to investigate the problem of deafness in Hong Kong. The number of deaf persons registered has now increased to 1,879 and the enrol- ment in schools for the deaf to 456. The Department runs three clubs for 142 deaf children who are unable to get into school. Further progress is expected when the Government has taken deci- sions on the recommendations of Dr D. R. Frisina, an expert on education for the deaf who recently visited Hong Kong under the auspices of UNESCO.

Rehabilitation of the physically handicapped owes a great deal to the pioneering efforts of voluntary organizations, such as the Mission to Lepers (Hong Kong Auxiliary) and the Society for the Relief of Disabled Children, both of which are concerned in the treatment of disability and started operations in 1951 and 1953 respectively. Registration began in 1958 and there are now 4,094 physically handicapped persons on the register. Recent advances include the establishment by the Hong Kong branch of the British