Yangcheon-gu 2020 Village Community Activity Casebook 'Together Drawing Yangcheon Stories' Published

Tile Mural Installation for 'Brighten Our Neighborhood' in Sinwol 2-dong

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] “The drawing I made is posted in the playground~”

In Sinwol 2-dong, Yangcheon-gu (Mayor Kim Soo-young), there is Hanareum Children's Park, beautifully decorated by children who are active as the ‘Uri Dongne Bitnaera’ team with their small hands.

As foot traffic gradually decreased, trash piled up, and part of the park was on the verge of becoming a high-crime area, residents who had been watching the neglected playground with regret gathered like-minded neighborhood mothers and their children with the will to renew the abandoned playground, starting a community project in 2019.

At first, they began with cleanup activities such as removing discarded trash and weeds, played traditional games with children in the playground, and attached tiles made from children's drawings on the bleak playground walls. Hanareum Children's Park began to transform from a dark and gloomy space into a bright playground filled with children's laughter.

The interest of local elders and neighbors grew day by day. The Sinwol 2-dong Nabinam (a group of single men in their 50s) helped remove weeds, and the ‘Hanmaeum Nori Madang’ residents' group visited the playground to hold multicultural play culture experience events with the children.

The story of the ‘Uri Dongne Bitnaera’ team, which transformed the playground into a space filled with residents' care, won the Excellence Award in the community section at the 3rd Hankyoreh-SH Happy Nest Story Contest last December.

In March last year, when the mask shortage crisis occurred, 26 resident groups participating in the ‘Cheer Up Yangcheon!’ contest made a total of 7,000 cotton masks by operating sewing machines or hand sewing, and distributed them to vulnerable groups through the neighborhood community center.

A resident of Sinjeong 4-dong who participated in mask production said, “A child who only liked playing games made masks together and felt proud of donating them,” adding, “When I saw handmade masks on the street, I proudly said, ‘Those are the masks we made.’”

The district compiled these cases and published the Yangcheon-gu community casebook ‘Together Drawing Yangcheon Story’ to widely share the ‘preciousness and joy of walking together.’

Kim Soo-young, Mayor of Yangcheon-gu, said, “I hope this casebook, containing the precious hearts and sincere stories of those who worked with the community throughout the year, will be widely read,” and added, “We will continue to communicate tirelessly with residents and devote all our efforts to creating a community made together.”

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