ENG-1964 — Page 163

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SOCIAL WELFARE

During the year 178 were admitted and 138 were discharged, of whom 15 were adopted into families either in Hong Kong or abroad. The number of babies abandoned has dropped to 91 as compared with 126 last year while adoptions both locally and overseas have decreased from 336 in 1963 to 226 in 1964. Two international welfare agencies have been responsible for processing adoption abroad. Other services such as school fees, cash grants, clothing and equipment were provided on an increased scale for needy children by a number of voluntary agencies; during the year more than 40,000 children have benefited in this way.

MORAL WELFARE

In the field of moral welfare the Social Welfare Department endeavours to rehabilitate young prostitutes, dance hostesses and bar girls, and to give care and advice to unmarried mothers and girls in moral danger or victims of sexual assault. The department provides a counselling service and vocational training while in- stitutional care and training are offered in two voluntary institutions, Pelletier Hall and the Po Leung Kuk. Vocational training is also available in various domestic skills at two day centres, of which one was opened during the year.

THE PROBATION SERVICE

Probation officers who have in the past been chiefly concerned with the task of supervising offenders on probation, are now being more frequently called upon to make social enquiries for the courts as a general aid to sentencing. During the year the total caseload reached over one thousand (for the first time), and in the ratio of approximately three adults to two juveniles.

The juvenile correctional institutions at present consist of a combined remand and probation home for 160 boys, a similar home for 50 girls, and a reformatory school for 150 boys. There are plans for a probation hostel at Kwun Tong for young offenders aged between 16 and 21 and for a second reformatory school.

Valuable voluntary services on the preventive and positive side are also offered by the Juvenile Care Centre and the Society of Boys' Centres for residential training of those who need to over- come behaviour and other difficulties. The Discharged Prisoners'