Yangcheon-gu Love Temperature 164℃... Yongsan-gu Love Temperature 110.7℃

[Seoul Autonomous District News] Yangcheon-gu Total Fundraising Amount 1.42 Billion Won, Achieving Over 164% of Initial Goal... Yongsan-gu Achieves 110.7% of 'Warm Winter Campaign' Fundraising (Far Exceeding 1.352 Billion Won Goal with 1.49641 Billion Won Raised)... Dobong-gu Raises 524 Million Won, 176% Higher Than Previous Years, Surpassing Pre-COVID-19 Fundraising... Songpa-gu Bangi 1-dong Donates Proceeds from Recycled Donated Old Mobile Phones to Vulnerable Groups... Gangbuk-gu Prevents Solitary Deaths with IoT Era Smart Plugs... Gwangjin-gu

November last year, 2022 Hope Ondol Warm Winter Love Temperature Tower Unveiling Ceremony

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Yangcheon-gu (Mayor Kim Soo-young) announced that it has exceeded the original target amount for the ‘2022 Hope Ondol Warm Winter Fundraising Project,’ completing a warm temperature of love at 164 degrees Celsius with a total of 1.42 billion KRW.

Yangcheon-gu installed the ‘Love Temperature Tower,’ signaling the start of the ‘2022 Hope Ondol Warm Winter Fundraising Project,’ in the lobby of the district office’s first floor last November and has been encouraging a voluntary donation culture through continuous resident guidance and promotion for three months until February 14 this year.

This year’s final fundraising amount was 1.42 billion KRW, achieving more than 164% of the original target of 855 million KRW. Of this, 724 million KRW was in cash donations and 678 million KRW in goods, showing the precious donations from everyone who loves their neighbors in the community despite the difficult conditions caused by COVID-19.

Last December, a resident with a disability in Sinwol 6-dong personally delivered a bundle of coins and bills that had been steadily collected through various support and vocational training activities to the donation box. Heartwarming donations continued, including thick bundles of bills that sparked curiosity about how they passed through the narrow donation box slot, children who carefully collected their pocket money with small hands, and anonymous donations of rice, winter clothing, and heating supplies for neighbors in need.

The three-month fundraising period was a time to confirm the warm love of the residents who willingly shared with neighbors in need.

Kim Soo-young, Mayor of Yangcheon-gu, said, “I sincerely thank all donors who heated up Hope Ondol with the spirit of ‘together’ despite difficult circumstances,” adding, “The collected cash and goods will be used carefully to stabilize the lives of families in crisis and promote welfare in the local community.”

Welfare Policy Officer Suya Kim is celebrating the achievement of 110.7% of the Warm Winter Fundraising with the civil service guide district administration robot Yongbot in the lobby on the 2nd floor of the district office on the 15th.

Yongsan-gu (Mayor Seong Chang-hyun) achieved 110.7% of the ‘2022 Hope Ondol Warm Winter (Daggyeo)’ fundraising target.

The number of donations was 1,422, totaling 1.49641 billion KRW.

The Daggyeo campaign is a winter neighbor-helping project jointly conducted by the 25 autonomous districts of Seoul and the Seoul Social Welfare Community Chest. Donations from residents help basic livelihood security recipients, elderly living alone, disabled persons, and single-parent families. The district has been continuing this project since 2001.

Seong Chang-hyun, Mayor of Yongsan-gu, said, “This year, the district’s fundraising target of 1.352 billion KRW was greatly exceeded, reaching nearly 1.5 billion KRW. I thank the residents, organizations, and corporate officials who gathered their sincerity thinking of neighbors despite the difficult conditions caused by COVID-19.”

Dobong-gu (Mayor Lee Dong-jin) raised 524 million KRW in donations through the Hope Ondol Warm Winter project from November 15, 2021, to February 14, 2022.

This fundraising amount is 176% higher than previous years and is even more meaningful as it surpasses the amounts raised before the COVID-19 outbreak.

The 2022 Warm Winter project conducted supporter activities for the first time and carried out promotional activities. Especially this year, high-value donations from COVID-19 related businesses continued, enabling a higher fundraising amount than usual.

Lee Dong-jin, Mayor of Dobong-gu, said, “I express my gratitude to the donors who helped create a culture of sharing and giving even more during the prolonged COVID-19 situation. We will do our best to ensure that the collected donations are timely and appropriately provided to the underprivileged.”

The 2022 Hope Ondol Warm Winter fundraising amount will be operated through the Sharing Network project, which distributes funds to families in crisis, vulnerable groups, and social welfare institutions.

Songpa-gu (Mayor Park Sung-soo) is promoting the ‘ReBorn Project,’ which collects used mobile phones in Bangi 1-dong, recycles and sells them through a specialized company, and donates part of the proceeds to vulnerable groups.

On the 15th, a business agreement ceremony was held at Bangi 1-dong Community Service Center with Eco T&L (CEO Han Sang-moo), a social enterprise specializing in used mobile phone recycling. Since 2019, Eco T&L has actively donated to vulnerable groups in the region, including accumulating 120 million KRW in funds with Lotte World. This time, they joined hands with Bangi 1-dong to practice resource recycling and neighborly love.

According to the agreement, the two organizations will ▲promote participation in used mobile phone donations among local residents and institutions (organizations) ▲collect unused used mobile phones due to aging or damage and lead social contribution fund creation through recycling by selling recycled phones or shredding and selling metal scrap.

The social contribution funds raised will be delivered as cash and goods to the Community Chest of Korea, vulnerable groups in the region, and social welfare institutions under the name of participating organizations in connection with Bangi 1-dong Community Service Center by the end of this year.

From mid-month, Bangi 1-dong will conduct the ‘Send Love with Used Mobile Phones!’ campaign using online and offline media. Donation boxes for used mobile phones will be installed in local apartment complexes, schools, academies, and religious organizations to actively encourage participation.

Donated used mobile phones will have personal information thoroughly deleted using a specialized program with digital forensics before being recycled. Individuals or institutions (organizations) wishing to participate in the ‘ReBorn Project’ can contact Bangi 1-dong Community Service Center or Eco T&L.

Park Sung-soo, Mayor of Songpa-gu, said, “‘ReBorn Project’ has the double effect of recycling precious resources and donating to vulnerable groups,” adding, “We will continue to discover and actively promote various projects where the public and private sectors can work together for mutual growth.”

Smart plug installed in households targeted for solitary death prevention in Mia-dong

Gangbuk-gu (Mayor Park Kyum-soo) installs smart plugs using Internet of Things (IoT) technology in households at risk of solitary death and continuously monitors them to check their status remotely.

As of January this year, Gangbuk-gu has a population of 298,727. Among them, 64,486 are aged 65 or older, accounting for 21.58% of the total population, exceeding the 20% threshold for a super-aged society. Also, among 144,529 households, 61,790 are single-person households, making up 42.8%.

Facing this aging society, Gangbuk-gu is implementing the ‘Smart Plug Support Project’ to prevent solitary deaths, a social problem. The project installs smart plugs using IoT technology in single-person households at risk of solitary death to check on vulnerable groups remotely.

The support targets are single-person households judged to be at risk of solitary death according to a solitary death risk checklist and existing Gangbuk-gu Ansim-K service linked recipients. Welfare planners from community centers visit the homes to install smart plugs and obtain consent to reduce resistance. This is to explain the necessity and usage of the smart plugs directly.

The usage method is to plug the smart plug into an electrical outlet and then plug electronic devices such as TVs and refrigerators into the smart plug. The smart plug measures the power consumption of the connected devices and detects changes in room illumination.

Welfare planners set emergency signal detection times based on the solitary death risk level through consultations with the recipients. For example, if there is no power consumption or illumination change for a set time in a high-risk household, the smart plug sends a danger signal to the welfare planner. The signal appears on the planner’s PC and work mobile phone, and the person in charge immediately checks the situation by phone and home visit at least once. In case of an emergency, customized welfare services will be linked and emergency measures taken according to the recipient’s situation.

Park Kyum-soo, Mayor of Gangbuk-gu, said, “During a time when face-to-face visits to the elderly are difficult due to COVID-19, I hope this project will leave no gaps in managing vulnerable groups,” adding, “We will strive to make Gangbuk-gu a better place to live with prompt policies suited to the aging era.”

Village School 'Children Who Dream' Coding Class

Gwangjin-gu (Mayor Kim Sun-gap) is promoting the operation of the ‘2022 Gwangjin Innovation Education District’ to fully support the growth of children and adolescents.

Since 2015, Gwangjin-gu has built the Gwangjin Innovation Education District to organically cooperate among ▲local community (private) ▲district office and education support office (public) ▲schools (academic) to foster children and adolescents as school and village agents, providing diverse and autonomous educational environments and content.

The Innovation Education District leads the creation of an educational ecosystem where learning and rest coexist, moving away from competitive, entrance exam-oriented curricula.

Through the Innovation Education District, Gwangjin-gu plans to implement 31 projects in five areas: ▲organic private-public-academic governance operation ▲school curriculum operation with the village ▲strengthening support systems for village activities for learning and rest ▲support for children and adolescent autonomous activities ▲regional specialized projects.

Major projects include discovering and supporting ‘village instructors’ who act as mediators between the village and schools using local human resources, publicly recruiting ‘village schools’ that provide diverse learning opportunities using educational content outside schools, and ‘Warm BOOK & Sound,’ which offers visiting reading activities and music classes in cooperation with Gwangjin Information Library.

To develop youth talents and promote self-directed growth, the Innovation Education District supports the youth club ‘Gwangcle.’ In the second half of the year, it will also hold events such as the ‘Youth Festival’ and ‘Youth e-Sports Competition’ to provide opportunities for experience and communication.

Additionally, amid difficulties in activating face-to-face education due to COVID-19, Gwangjin-gu is developing online lectures and experience programs such as ‘Stay-at-Home! Experience Program’ and ‘Local Storytelling through Games’ to connect schools and villages through diverse learning methods.

Kim Sun-gap, Mayor of Gwangjin-gu, said, “We plan to invest 500 million KRW from the district and 390 million KRW from the city to realize the goal of ‘nurturing an educational community where you, I, and we grow together’ through the Gwangjin Innovation Education District,” adding, “We will continue to support children and adolescents to grow autonomously.”

Gangnam-gu (Mayor Jung Soon-gyun) announced that it has established a mid- to long-term childcare development plan for 2022?2026 to create ‘Gangnam, a child-rearing friendly childcare city,’ investing 32.34336 billion KRW over five years.

Based on last year’s survey and research results, Gangnam-gu set three major policy goals and 17 tasks: ▲establishing a reliable public childcare system ▲improving the quality of childcare services ▲building a community childcare ecosystem.

Gangnam-gu plans to expand public daycare centers from the current 63 to 75 by 2026 and implement the ‘Gangnam-gu Partnership Project’ that links public, private, and home daycare centers to share excellent programs. Especially, to meet the top resident demand for ‘expanding play and experience spaces for infants and toddlers,’ the number of ‘public indoor playgrounds’ will increase from two to seven by 2026, and ‘smart indoor play and experience spaces’ will also be installed.

The district will conduct developmental screenings for infants and toddlers in daycare centers to detect developmental delays early and dispatch assistant teachers for borderline children. It will provide ‘play-specialized programs’ suitable for the standard childcare curriculum and parental needs, fully supported by district funds for children aged 24 months or older enrolled in public, private, and home daycare centers in the area.

The Yeoksam-dong Children’s Culture Center, opening in 2025, will serve as a hub for infant and toddler childcare services, equipped with an imagination library, play experience hall, and small performance hall.

Jung Soon-gyun, Mayor of Gangnam-gu, said, “During the 7th term of the elected government, Gangnam-gu has actively promoted customized childcare policies for infants, children, and adolescents based on the belief that responsibility for child-rearing and care also lies with the public sector,” adding, “We will continue to create a happy city Gangnam with optimal living guarantees characteristic of Gangnam.”

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