Incheon’s Ganghwa and Ongjin Launch "Well-being Mail Service"... Postal Workers to Check on Residents

On March 5, the Incheon Metropolitan Government announced that Ganghwa County and Ongjin County, both island and rural areas within Incheon, have been selected as final recipients in the "2026 Well-being Mail Service Project" competition organized by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.

This project is a home-visit welfare service jointly operated by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, Korea Post, and local governments. By leveraging the personal networks of postal delivery workers, the program regularly visits and manages at-risk households in need of well-being checks, such as single middle-aged households, socially isolated youth, and grandparent-grandchild families.

Postal workers will deliver daily necessities and check in on individuals designated by local governments as high-priority recipients, visiting them at intervals of one to four weeks. Any crisis information identified through health and housing checklists will be reported to the local government, which will then connect recipients to tailored welfare services, including counseling, monitoring, and case management.

Ganghwa and Ongjin are island and rural areas where the population is widely dispersed, transportation accessibility is low, and welfare infrastructure is relatively lacking. Regular in-person well-being checks are thus especially important for single-person households and elderly residents living alone. The city plans to invest 40 million won—including national funds secured through the competition, operating expenses supported by the Korea Post Public Foundation, and municipal and county funds—to implement the project for 131 households in Ganghwa and Ongjin counties.

An official from the Incheon Metropolitan Government stated, "Loneliness and social isolation are no longer just individual issues—they are challenges that the community must address together. Through the Well-being Mail Service, we will proactively identify at-risk households and continuously support their connection to society."

At the launch ceremony of the 'Loneliness Response Team' held at Incheon City Hall, Incheon Mayor Yoo Jung-bok and attendees are seen sending off a hope airplane. December 11, 2025. Provided by Incheon City

Meanwhile, the number of single-person households in Incheon continues to rise. According to an announcement from the Ministry of Health and Welfare (as of 2024), there are approximately 412,000 single-person households in Incheon, accounting for 32.5% of all general households, and this figure has increased by an average of more than 6.7% each year since 2019. Alongside this, the number of lonely deaths is also on the rise, underscoring the need to strengthen responses to social isolation.

In response, the Incheon Metropolitan Government established the "Loneliness Care Bureau" earlier this year through organizational restructuring, taking comprehensive charge of prevention, identification, connection, and care to address loneliness and social isolation. This Well-being Mail Service Project is a practical initiative linked to these policies, enabling the early identification of at-risk households in the field and the prevention of risk factors such as lonely deaths.

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