ENG-1964 — Page 166

SOCIAL WELFARE

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has been completed at Aberdeen, with expanded and improved facilities for social and vocational training for a maximum capacity of six hundred. Its facilities, provided in co-operation with the new Surgical Appliance Centre of the Medical and Health Depart- ment, include instruction in practical modern trades like printing and light mechanics. The aim is to have a single process of rehabilita- tion, from initial medical treatment through vocational training to final resettlement in employment and self-reliance. The total number of handicapped people registered with the Social Welfare Depart- ment including 4,802 physically handicapped, 4,221 blind, 2,091 deaf, and 1,119 mentally defective, continued to rise, and at the end of the year exceeded 12,200.

Voluntary agencies were the pioneers in this, as in so many other fields. The factory for the blind run by the Hong Kong Society for the Blind employs 135 workers in machine sewing, broom, brush and button making, crate and box construction and mending, and chalk-making. Clubs are operated by Government for nearly 80 blind persons, to assist them to adjust initially to their handicap. For blind children, there are two schools run by voluntary agencies which provide residential care and training. Almost a hundred deaf children are now in school and another 170 at clubs operated by Government. Progress is also being maintained in carrying out the recommendations made by Dr L. T. Hilliard in his 1960 Report on the problem of mental deficiency in Hong Kong. There are three day centres for 100 mentally retarded children and the Aberdeen Rehabilitation Centre has a specially designed block for 60 mentally defective children. The British Commonwealth Save the Children Fund has shown welcome initiative in opening a play centre for 50 mentally retarded children aged four to eight.

Although the sense of obligation towards the aged still remains strong in the community, the continuing impact of urban industrial conditions on the family system is bound to result in a greater need in future for accommodation in homes for the aged; accom- modation available in voluntary homes remained at about 1,600.

CONCLUSION

In the endeavour to expand and improve social services Hong Kong is fortunate in having many local and international welfare