Children Fund Work In Hong Kong Described

Press, Volume C, Issue 29424, 28 January 1961, Page 2

Children Fund Work In Hong Kong Described

“Everyone looked so glum on the streets of Christchurch when we arrived back. It was such a contrast to the smiling faces We had seen in overcrowded, poverty-stricken Hong Kong.” This was the comment of Mrs M. W. Simes, who recently returned to Christchurch from a six weeks’ tour with her husband of South-east Asia.

While in Hong Kong she looked at the work of the Save the Children Fund, and she reported to the North Canterbury branch of the fund, of which she is an executive member, at a meeting yesterday.

In Kowloon she visited a day nursery which has 100 children aged two to six years, who attend six days a week from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. The children all come from the Wong Tai Sin resettlement estate. About 20 per cent, have only one parent, and the rest come from families whose average income is approximately 120 to 150 Hong Kong dollars a month, and with at least four children living with the family. “A considerable amount of home visiting was involved in choosing the children who now attend the nursery and close contact is kept with the family,” she said. Weekly Bath

The staff give the children a breakfast of congee (a sort of Scotch broth), a midday meal of meat vegetables and rice or noodles, a piece of fruit daily, and milk and biscuits in the afternoon. During the winter there is no water until 4.30 p.m. and the small washroom does not allow for giving the children a daily bath, but they get a weekly one.

"This means that the main responsibility for keeping the children clean rests with the parents, and they are all spotless, in spite of the filth that' continually surrounds them,” said Mrs Simes. A doctor from the Government maternal and child welfare clinic visits the nursery once a month, and the weekly services of a health visitor are given if needed. All the children are tested for tuberculosis, and treated if necessary.

Future plans for expansion of Save the Children Fund work in Hong Hong Include a similar day nursery in another resettlement estate with an adjacent play centre. A shelter for street boys is to be built in Kowloon. This will take boys aged 10 to 16 years who have no family.

The shelter staff will offer them temporary accommodation, try to And suitable jobs, for them or if necessary look after them while they undergo training. The fund is co-operating closely with the Government Department of Social Welfare in this project and if successful will open a second shelter in Hong Kong. New School Mrs Simes also visited a school in Hong Kong run by the Save the Children Fund. When it is completed it will take 1000 pupils, both boys and girls. Included in the curriculum will be subjects that will later enable the pupils to earn their living—the boys are taught woodwork, and the girls embroidery. ‘‘They come from houses that measure eight feet by six feet, with families of about eight or nine people living in each," she said. The houses were made of canvas, paper, cardboard, old sacks—“in fact, anything the refugees could lay their hands on,’’ she said. All the cooking was done outside on the pavement—there was just no room inside. “The refugees are still coming in, but in lesser numbers now.” she said. Although they were deeply grateful for all that the contributors were doing for them, the staff of the Save the Children Fund emphasised to Mrs Simes that their greatest need was still money and sponsorships.