Yeosu City Initiates Creation of a Happy City for Children and Adolescents

Goal to Achieve 'UNICEF Child-Friendly City' Certification by 2023

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Lee Hyung-kwon] Yeosu City (Mayor Kwon Oh-bong) is accelerating efforts to obtain the ‘UNICEF Child-Friendly City’ certification by 2023 to create a city where children and adolescents can grow up happily and healthily.

A ‘UNICEF Child-Friendly City’ is a city that fully realizes the four fundamental rights of children (survival, protection, development, and participation) as stipulated in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. UNICEF, a permanent UN body, certifies cities that meet the 10 basic principles and 46 criteria.

The city formed a Child and Adolescent Friendly City Promotion Committee in September last year, aiming for the ‘UNICEF Child-Friendly City’ certification by 2023.

In the first half of this year, the city signed an MOU with UNICEF and related organizations to promote a cooperative network. In the second half, as a planning phase, it will conduct a ‘4-Year Basic Plan Establishment Research Project for Creating a Child and Adolescent Friendly City’ based on a child status survey and child-friendliness evaluation of the city.

In particular, to reform the child abuse and child protection system, the city established a ‘Child Protection Team,’ assigning dedicated public officials and child specialists to promote meticulous child welfare, and also operates a shelter for abused children.

Next year will be the implementation phase, during which the city plans to solidly promote child and adolescent friendly projects and strategic projects across all departments, with the goal of applying for certification in the second half of 2023.

To protect children’s health and right to life, the city invested 17.33 billion KRW last year in child meals and child allowances, and provided 70 million KRW worth of health and hygiene supplies to 805 low-income female adolescents.

The city supports 95 foster children with 260 million KRW for childcare subsidies, college entrance funds, and accident insurance enrollment, and provides adopted children with a monthly childcare allowance of 150,000 KRW, helping children who cannot be protected at home to grow physically, emotionally, and socially healthy.

A city official said, “We will focus on establishing a foundation for a child and adolescent friendly city so that children and adolescents in our region can grow up bright and healthy, and will carry out projects accordingly.”

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