Gwangju Seo-gu Receives Ministerial Award for Outstanding Local Community Activities

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Shin Dong-ho] Seo-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City, was selected as an excellent case in the field activity category for the ‘Single Men’s One-Room Escape Project’ in Sangmu 1-dong at the ‘2021 Local Community Activity Best Practice Contest’ hosted by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, and received the Minister’s Commendation.

According to Seo-gu on the 7th, the ‘Local Community Activity Best Practice Contest’ is a system established to select, share, and disseminate cases that have contributed to revitalizing communities by resolving local issues through local community activities.

Seo-gu submitted two cases to this contest, and among them, the ‘Single Men’s One-Room Escape Project’ by the Parangsae One-Room Town Council in Sangmu 1-dong won the Minister’s Award in the field activity category.

The ‘Single Men’s One-Room Escape Project’ started with participation in the ‘Gwangju Social Value Matching Day’ project last year, as residents sought to directly solve ongoing village problems such as the risk of solitary deaths due to the geographic characteristics of Sangmu 1-dong, which has the largest concentration of about 900 one-room units among single administrative districts nationwide, and the spread of single-person households isolated from society due to COVID-19. Since then, various activities have been carried out.

Main activities include ▲operating the self-help group for single men called ‘Kkumdori Club’ ▲‘Three Meals a Day Cooking Class’ where participants learn cooking and support neighbors with side dishes ▲‘Companion Travel’ program for neighbors to meet as friends ▲one-room village cleanup project ‘Neighborhood Walk.’

Through this project, single men are enhancing their self-esteem and growing into necessary workers in the village by solving local issues such as snow removal, disinfection, and environmental cleanup together as members of a living community.

A Seo-gu official said, “Since the community activity case of residents received a good evaluation and won the Minister’s Award from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, we will strive to widely spread the district’s local community activity cases.”

Meanwhile, Seo-gu plans to share and disseminate the excellent cases selected this year through a local community forum held online later this month.

Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Shin Dong-ho sdhs6751@asiae.co.kr

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