A — Their number at present is only three, and this number is very small in proportion to the breadth of the field in which we work; but our material means do not allow more than three social workers at the present time.

Q — Naturally, for your budget, it seems, falls short even of securing the salaries of the employees who watch over the interests of these social services, which demand effort and perseverance... this apart from the efforts of the trainees and of the volunteer ladies from among the members of the association... And now, Mrs. Nakkash, let us pass to a second question: what is the most important social matter that you are concerned with at the present time?

* Broadcast in "Woman's Talk" from Radio Lebanon.

A — The Union for the Protection of Juveniles, after having striven hard for the application of the law on the employment of children and women in industrial establishments, is now directing its attention, in particular, to the question of vagrants and beggars and of those wishing to enter orphanages and schools, and especially to delinquent juveniles...

Q — And approximately how many social investigations do the delegates conduct in a year? I mean, do you keep statistics on this?

A — Of course; our office, situated on the second floor of the Municipality building, takes care to keep count of as many of these investigations as possible. Their number for the year 1950 reached about three hundred (300), and for 1951, (400).

Q — And you said, Mrs. Nakkash, that the court relies on these investigations in giving its judgment on delinquent juveniles?

A — Yes; and after that we send them to a special reformatory, the "Juvenile Reform Institute at Dahr al-Sawan," which our association had the honor of establishing and equipping.

Q — It is indeed a great and useful work. And when did you establish this reformatory?

A — In 1947.

Q — Yes; and I recall that we read a long illustrated reportage about it, by Mr. Najati Sidqi, in a past issue of The Woman's Voice magazine. Indeed, I cannot but express my utmost admiration for this project, because it treats the problems of delinquent juveniles in a positive and useful way, instead of these juveniles being thrown, while still tender of years, into prison with the grown criminals — as if to prepare them and train them for a life of crime!! By this work of yours — I mean by founding the "Juvenile Reformatory" — you have saved a great number of delinquent juveniles from a dark future toward which they would inevitably have been driven, had it not been for this institution...

And now let us return to the very heart of your own work: what are, according to your experience,

Mrs. Nakkash, the most important causes that fling children and juveniles into committing first offenses?

A — After long experience, we have found that the most important causes leading to juvenile delin-quency are poverty, ignorance, and unemployment, and that the absence of compulsory education and of vocational schools throws these children into the streets and alleys, among bad companions.

Q — And how many of them there are in our streets, especially the mean ones! I do not blame these juveniles in the least, for most of the time they live in broken, poor, wretched families. Where is a child to play, in a house made up of a single miserable room no bigger than two meters, with the damp oozing from its floor? No doubt he finds the alleys a roomier field for his legs, and bad company sweeter and dearer to his ear than his parents' quarreling over a crust of bread... Poor juveniles! They deserve all our sympathy and all our tenderness; and it seems to me that they find in the social workers their best refuge.

A — Indeed. These juveniles, who lack the affection of their parents and of their families generally, find for themselves no refuge and no helper like the social workers. They place their trust in them, return to them for guidance and advice, and confide to them secrets that they keep hidden from their own families...

Q — And do you have in mind, Mrs. Nakkash, living examples of this trust?

A — Yes, there are many examples that show how these delinquent juveniles feel reassured and at ease in pouring out what is hidden in their souls to the social workers... Some time ago the social worker met one of the juveniles, and he asked her advice as to whether he should take work as a servant in a pharmacy or keep on learning the blacksmith's trade. The worker advised him to stay with his father in the blacksmith's trade; and since he was without schooling, the blacksmith's trade was better for his future than service in a pharmacy...

Q — And did he act on her advice?

A — Naturally; and it is among the duties of the

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