Gwangju Nam-gu Ranks No.1 Nationwide in Disability Welfare Evaluation... Receives Minister of Health and Welfare Award

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Nam-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City (District Mayor Kim Byeong-nae) announced on the 18th that it received the grand prize in the ‘1st Disability Welfare Evaluation’ for systematically promoting disability self-reliance support, operating a dedicated public-private council for the disabled linked with the local community, and demand-centered customized counseling to realize the right to pursue happiness for the disabled and create a community of coexistence through social participation.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare held the ‘2020 Welfare Administration Awards Ceremony’ online in a non-face-to-face manner at the Government Sejong Convention Center on the morning of the same day, selecting eight excellent local governments including Nam-gu, Gwangju, which received the highest score in this evaluation, and Gangdong-gu, Seoul.

Nam-gu received the highest scores in the three quantitative evaluation indicators: ▲disability self-reliance support ▲disability service support ▲disability welfare delivery system, announcing the status of ‘Happy Welfare Nam-gu’ nationwide.

First, to expand social participation and income security for the disabled, the district promoted a disability job project, providing workplaces for 141 disabled people, and achieved a participation rate of 100.2% in the disability job project by additionally placing participants in the second half of the year.

In the field of disability service support, a survey was conducted on 11,311 registered disabled people in the district to discover those eligible for disability welfare service rights protection, identifying 1,578 people, about 14% of registered disabled persons, enabling them to enjoy various services and support benefits.

Also, to support disability experience and educational activities, a 25-seat specialized vehicle was produced, and about 600 disabled people were provided with activity support services such as housekeeping support every month, offering leisure and vitality to their lives.

Along with this, to provide systematic welfare services, the district established the barrier-free Nam-gu BF travel platform using IT technology and operated the Happy Welfare 7979 Center as a district mayor’s pledge, achieving a major innovation in the welfare paradigm and presenting a new role model to local governments nationwide.

In addition, to help disabled people in the district firmly establish themselves as members of our society through leisure activities, a new project supporting cultural and artistic activities for the disabled was launched to improve the quality of life for the disabled, and a group called ‘People Making Barrier-Free Nam-gu’ was formed with welfare facilities, organizations, and local community activists to carry out various activities.

District Mayor Kim Byeong-nae said, “We have devoted all our efforts to this field to ensure that disabled people in the district enjoy a happy life. Especially, achieving first place nationwide in the evaluation conducted for the first time this year by the Ministry of Health and Welfare makes us feel the worth of our hard work, and we will further strengthen the establishment of Happy Welfare Nam-gu.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.