PUBLIC ORDER
nursing, psychological services, dog-handling, emergency services and physical education. Weekly in-service training is carried out within institutions to cater for their individual needs.
Attachment training to other government departments and overseas penal settings is also organised, from time to time, for officers of middle management level and above.
Non-government Organisations
A number of organisations assist the department in providing services to help inmates re-integrate into the community. These include the Society for the Rehabilitation of Offenders, Hong Kong Caritas Lop Heep Club, Hong Kong Christian Kun Sun Association, Wu Oi Christian Centre and the Prisoners' Friends' Association. They provide services such as case work, counselling, hostel accommodation, employment assistance, recreational activities and care for those with a history of mental illness.
Civil Aid Services
The Civil Aid Services (CAS) is an auxiliary emergency relief organisation. Its main role is to support government departments in tackling emergency situations. The CAS is financed by the government and has an establishment of 3 634 uniformed and disciplined adult volunteers, 3 232 cadets and 126 permanent staff.
Role and Responsibilities
The work of the CAS has a heavy emphasis on coping with natural disasters. Its volunteers are trained to perform duties during tropical cyclones, landslips and flooding; to search for and rescue persons trapped in collapsed buildings; to fight forest fires and patrol country parks; to manage refugee camps; to combat oil pollution at sea; to assist the police in crowd control and incident management; and to perform first aid, casualty-handling and evacuations. They also carry out difficult mountain rescue operations. On any weekend or public holiday, it is normal for over 500 volunteers to be on duty.
Civic Duties
The CAS is also heavily committed to performing civic duties. During the year, adult volunteers help to organise and provide crowd control, communications and marshalling services in charity fund-raising activities, government campaigns and at other public functions.
Vietnamese Migrant Duties
The permanent staff and volunteers of the CAS manage two Vietnamese refugee and migrant centres the New Horizons Vietnamese Refugee Departure Centre (for Vietnamese refugees who have been accepted for resettlement overseas) and the Kai Tak Vietnamese Migrant Transit Centre (for Vietnamese migrants awaiting voluntary repatriation to Vietnam, and Vietnamese women at an advanced stage of pregnancy and their accompanying relatives from other detention centres. Vietnamese migrants seeking medical advice and treatment are also lodged temporarily at the Kai Tak Centre).
The work in these centres is both physically and psychologically demanding. Duties are performed under difficult conditions, and a good deal of dedication and patience is required of those involved. CAS volunteers, who have met all demands made on them,
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