ENG-1966 — Page 209

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SOCIAL WELFARE

THE DISABLED

During the year the special welfare section of the Social Welfare Department opened its fifth club for 50 deaf children and started an experimental pre-vocational class for 60 mentally retarded children. A Buddhist group opened another home for the aged which provides accommodation for 100 elderly women. The total number of disabled people registered with the Social Welfare Department rose from 13,355 to 15,008. During the course of the year the special welfare section found employment for more than 100 such people. By the end of the year plans for a vocational rehabilitation day centre for 360 disabled people, which is to be built in Kwun Tong with a grant from the World Rehabilitation Fund, were well under way. The building is expected to be com- pleted in-1968 and will be managed by the department.

PROBATION AND CORRECTION

Probation officers are responsible for supervising offenders on probation as well as for making social enquiries on behalf of the courts. At the end of the year there were 1,563 individuāls on probation, compared with 1,524 at the end of 1965. The department maintains a combined remand and probation home for 160 boys and a similar home for 50 girls-both in Kowloon-and a reform- atory (or 'approved') school for 150 boys at Castle Peak in the New Territories, as well as a probation hostel, opened during the year, in which probationers may be ordered to reside while going out daily to work. Valuable voluntary services are offered on the preventive and positive side by the Juvenile Care Centre and the Society of Boys' Centres, which give residential training to those who need help in finding a niche in society or in overcoming difficulties of behaviour and relationship.

PUBLIC ASSISTANCE AND EMERGENCY RELIEF

The aim of the relief section of the Social Welfare Department is to relieve distress and hardship and assist individuals and families who have fallen into financial difficulty to re-establish themselves and to become economically independent. Cooked food or dry rations are provided as an immediate measure of 'first-aid' but counselling is employed to determine the cause of the situation and