[Seoul District News] Songpa-gu Hosts ‘Seoul Nori Hanmadang’ at Seokchon Lake Park on 4th with 250 Children from Songpa Kiwoom Center; Songpa Ssaem Character Library, Musical, Balloon Art and More... Guro-gu Holds 100th Children’s Day ‘Outstanding Works Exhibition’... Exciting Children’s Day with Heo Jun and Jeong Seon... Dongjak-gu Hosts 6th Ipamnamu Flower Festival on 5th for Children’s Day... Seongdong-gu Runs School Safety Education Program... Eunpyeong-gu Reopens Renovated Children’s Park... Gangdong-gu Sangil
[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] Songpa-gu will hold a diverse children's play experience event called ‘Nori Hanmadang’ at the Seoul Nori Madang in Seokchon Lake Park on the 4th to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Children's Day.
‘Nori Hanmadang’ is an outdoor event with a gathering of more than 50 people, and according to government quarantine guidelines, although it is outdoors, all attendees must wear masks. A district official said, “We will do our best to ensure quarantine so that children can play safely and healthily.”
This event is hosted by the Songpa Kiwoom Center Association and was prepared to encourage children, parents, and caregivers who have been exhausted by the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic and to reflect on the meaning of Children's Day. About 250 children belonging to 16 Songpa Kiwoom Centers are expected to attend.
The event, held in three parts, consists of ▲‘Ssompa Ssem (SSEM)’ Character Library, calligraphy, balloon art, dalgona making, pottery wheel play, and various play experience booths in the ‘Children's Experience Yard’ ▲Children's Day ceremony featuring the reading of the Children's Charter and special congratulatory performances by caregivers and children ▲and ‘Events and Celebratory Performances’ including musicals, magic shows, and ventriloquism shows.
Supporting the dreams and hopes of Songpa-gu children, many local institutions and companies such as the Korea Bookstore Association Gangdong Songpa Bookstore Cooperative, Samjeon Comprehensive Social Welfare Center, Heart Heart Foundation, and Lotte Mulsan have also provided gifts and donations.
A district official said, “We have prepared a Children's Day commemorative event where children, who had limited outdoor activities due to COVID-19, can laugh and play freely in good weather. We hope that through Nori Hanmadang, children, parents, and caregivers will come together in one heart to create a space for empathy and communication to understand each other.”
Guro-gu (Mayor Lee Sung) will hold an excellent works exhibition to commemorate the 100th Children's Day.
Guro-gu announced on the 3rd, “Last month, we held a non-face-to-face Children's Day event for local elementary school students, including writing and drawing contests. Among the submitted works, excellent pieces were selected and an outdoor exhibition was prepared.”
The excellent works outdoor exhibition will be held at Gocheok Neighborhood Park from the 4th to the 10th. A total of 42 excellent works in categories such as drawing, writing contests, and child-friendly calendars will be displayed.
Additionally, on May 5th, Children's Day, a balloon art event will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Previously, from the 11th to the 15th of last month, Guro-gu held a non-face-to-face Children's Day event for local elementary school students. A total of 219 participants (221 works) participated, including 168 in drawing (free theme), 37 in writing contests (themes: connection, future, promise, way to school), and 14 in child-friendly calendar (Child-Friendly City Guro).
The submitted works were judged by judges from the Guro Writers' Association, Guro Art Association, and Good Neighbors, selecting a total of 84 works for grand prize, excellence, merit, encouragement, and selection.
A Guro-gu official said, “We hope this event held for Children's Day will be an opportunity to satisfy children's artistic desires. We will continue to prepare various events to nurture children's dreams and talents.”
Meanwhile, Guro-gu is holding the ‘We Drew (GR) Green World Drawing Contest’ for local elementary school students until the 18th. It is held on the occasion of the 27th Environment Day (June 5th) with themes of environmental conservation and energy saving.
Those who wish to participate can submit the students' works and application forms collected by school to the district office's Environment Division either in person or by mail.
How about enjoying an exciting Children's Day with historical figures from Gangseo-gu?
Seoul Gangseo-gu (Mayor Noh Hyun-song) announced that it will hold a rich event at Heo Jun Museum and Gyeomjae Jeongseon Art Museum on May 5th, Children's Day.
The event was prepared to give children a chance to enjoy various experiences while learning about historical figures representing our region.
First, at Heo Jun Museum, magician Min Jun-seo will be invited to perform an exciting children's magic show at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Outdoor experience booths will offer various activities such as making natural herbal soap, decorating carnation brooches, decorating ten longevity symbols handkerchiefs, and face painting.
Especially, in the natural herbal soap making experience, children will have the opportunity to touch herbal medicines that are usually hard to access and learn about their various effects.
The magic show and face painting experience are free, but other experiences such as herbal soap making cost up to 4,000 won.
At Gyeomjae Jeongseon Art Museum, various experience events and activities are also prepared for children. Cotton candy will be distributed at the museum entrance, and face tattoo experiences with fun pictures will be held on the first-floor lawn.
On the second floor in the Jin-gyeong Culture Experience Room, activities such as Slow Mail Love U Letter, making face badges, and colorful scratch experiences will be held. On the third-floor outdoor deck, windmill making and caricature drawing in oriental painting style for children will be conducted.
The cotton candy event and face tattoo experience are free, but other experiences such as oriental painting caricatures cost up to 4,000 won.
The events at Heo Jun Museum and Gyeomjae Jeongseon Art Museum will be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and experience applications can be made on-site on the day. A district official said, “We hope that visiting the museum and art museum with children to enjoy various experiences and learn about our region's historical figures, Guam Heo Jun and Gyeomjae Jeongseon, will be a meaningful time.”
Meanwhile, the district will open the exhibition halls of Heo Jun Museum and Gyeomjae Jeongseon Art Museum free of charge on Children's Day.
Dongjak-gu (Mayor Lee Chang-woo) will hold the ‘6th Ipapnamu Flower Festival’ on the 5th, Children's Day, from 2 p.m. along the section from Hills State Sangdo Central Park opposite Soongsil University to Sangdo Prestige.
The Ipapnamu flower, which blooms fully in May, is a spring flower with a fun shape like white rice, and the ‘Ipapnamu Street,’ a symbolic street of Dongjak-gu connecting Sangdo Intersection to Bongcheon Hill section, is a beautiful flower road shared with residents. This is Dongjak-gu's representative festival.
Especially, this year's 6th festival is the first event in three years since the full lifting of social distancing, planned under the theme ‘Recovery to Daily Life,’ and will be held with various programs that all generations can enjoy together.
On the day, pre-event activities such as resident singing contests, magic shows, classical ensembles, and traditional Korean music and percussion performances will start at 2 p.m., followed by the opening ceremony, cultural performances, and prize draws from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Additional side events to enhance the festival atmosphere will also be held from 2 p.m. ▲Especially, a children's play zone with air bounce, slides, mini Viking, and ball pool will be set up for Children's Day ▲Traditional play, face painting, rice cake pounding, and other experience programs ▲Food markets will also operate.
Kim Dong-mae, chairman of the Ipapnamu Flower Festival Promotion Committee in Sangdo 1-dong (71), said, “We will prepare thoroughly so that residents can regain vitality in daily life at the Ipapnamu Festival held for the first time in three years.”
Moon Young-sam, head of Sangdo 1-dong, said, “As this is the first festival held after the full lifting of social distancing, we will thoroughly manage quarantine to ensure safety. We hope everyone will enjoy the spring snow flowers on the Dongjak Ipapnamu Road, selected as one of Seoul's beautiful spring flower roads.”
Meanwhile, the following locations were selected as ‘Beautiful Seoul Flower Roads’ by Seoul City in April: ▲Salpijae Ipapnamu Street ▲National Cemetery ▲Dorimcheon (596 Sihang-daero) ▲Nodeulnaru Park ▲Sadang-ro Green Walkable Street (40 Sadang-ro 2-gil) ▲Noryangjin Neighborhood Park ▲Noryangjin-ro ▲Manyang-ro.
Seongdong-gu (Mayor Jung Won-oh) operates a school-visit safety education program to help children actively respond to crisis situations in daily life.
The district operates a ‘Visiting Disaster Safety Experience Center’ for 25 elementary, middle, and high schools in the area, providing hands-on education where students can touch, feel, and experience to easily prepare for disasters in real life.
The ‘Visiting Disaster Safety Experience Center’ conducted at Seongdong Life Safety Learning Center educates on how to respond to dangerous situations such as fire and earthquake and safe evacuation methods.
It simulates fire situations inside buildings and conducts training to move according to emergency exit signs, explaining in detail how to evacuate safely in actual situations, including escape postures and smoke inhalation prevention tips. It also teaches how to use fire extinguishers on fire scene screens and action guidelines for situations progressing from earthquake occurrence to fire suppression and evacuation.
It informs about the installation locations of escape devices that allow people to slowly descend from high floors by tying ropes to their bodies when a fire occurs in a high-rise building, along with usage methods and precautions. It also teaches emergency treatment methods for situations such as cardiac arrest, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), and automated external defibrillator (AED) use to prepare for emergencies at all times.
Seongdong Life Safety Learning Center, now in its 7th year since opening in 2015, was the first comprehensive safety experience center established by a Seoul autonomous district. It is directly managed and operated by the district and conducts various safety programs in fields such as CPR and disaster safety. Although visits were restricted due to COVID-19 in 2020, it was the only one among 25 Seoul local governments to operate a ‘Visiting Safety Experience Vehicle’ and conduct mobile education.
The district signed a business agreement with five schools participating first in this education to promote regular education annually. In the second half of the year, it plans to actively promote the program through mutual consultation with the remaining 20 elementary schools. Additionally, it plans to discover related programs on infectious diseases, climate environment, waste issues, and actively reflect ideas obtained on-site.
Jung Won-oh, mayor of Seongdong-gu, said, “As Children's Day week emphasizes children's safety more, we will prepare for crisis situations through experiential education where children can see, hear, and feel disaster situations directly. We will conduct various safety education so that the learning center, the first of its kind, becomes the safest learning center and residents can wisely cope with any disaster situation.”
Eunpyeong-gu announced that it will renovate four parks, including old children's parks, and open them to local residents in time for the upcoming Children's Day and COVID-19 daily recovery.
The parks that have completed maintenance work this time are Yeokchon-dong Yeokmaeul Children's Park, Jeungsan-dong Buntogeo Children's Park, Sinsa-dong Saerakgeo Children's Park, and Sinsa Neighborhood Park Children's Playground.
Each park is located in residential areas and has a high usage rate by residents, but the facilities were simple and aging, making maintenance urgent. Therefore, the district secured 980 million won in special adjustment grants and carried out the old facility maintenance project.
The district installed play spaces such as combination playground equipment, seesaws, rocking play equipment, and sand playgrounds for children. In line with COVID-19 daily recovery, resting spaces, walking, and exercise areas were newly created for local residents.
A district official said, “Since 2019, we have been promoting maintenance work for 26 playgrounds to improve old children's parks. We will continue to do our best to create safe play spaces where children can run freely.”
The 87th public national daycare center in Gangdong-gu, ‘Gurip Harang Daycare Center’ (161 Godeok-ro 98-gil, Gangdong-gu), opened on the 2nd.
‘Gurip Harang Daycare Center,’ opened in a new apartment complex, is a one-story building with a total floor area of 334.91㎡, equipped with childcare rooms, teacher rooms, and a health room. A smart air shower to block fine dust is also installed at the daycare entrance.
The childcare capacity is 66 children, with 9 classes: 6 infants aged 0, 10 aged 1, 14 aged 2, 15 aged 3, and 21 aged 4-5. The 4-5 age class is an integrated class for children with disabilities, with an additional dedicated teacher for 3 disabled children.
The district is continuously expanding public daycare centers to strengthen the public nature of childcare and spread high-quality public childcare services. Last year, 8 public daycare centers opened, achieving a 45% utilization rate of public daycare centers. This year, starting with ‘Gurip Gangdong Hanbyeol Daycare Center’ opened in April, two centers including the newly opened ‘Gurip Harang Daycare Center’ have been added.
A district official said, “With the opening of the 87th public daycare center, the public utilization rate has reached 48%. We will continue to build a balanced public childcare infrastructure by region, considering local conditions and capacity fulfillment rates.”
Gangbuk-gu (Mayor Park Gyeom-su) is promoting the ‘Youth Mental Health Voucher Support Project’ to provide professional psychological counseling services to young people struggling with COVID blues and employment difficulties.
The support target is young people aged 19 to 34 (born between 1988 and 2003) residing in Gangbuk-gu. Anyone meeting the age criteria can apply regardless of income or assets. However, the district plans to prioritize mental health vouchers for youth who need priority counseling, such as those who have aged out of child welfare facilities at 18, those who have completed extended protection, and youth linked through mental health welfare centers.
Counseling services are divided into Type A and Type B. Type A is for those experiencing general psychological problems who want to receive mental health-related treatment without burden, while Type B is for those with higher counseling needs or requiring relatively advanced counseling.
The counseling fee is 60,000 won per session for Type A and 70,000 won per session for Type B, but the government supports the amount except for a 10% co-payment (6,000 won per session for Type A, 7,000 won per session for Type B).
Youth wishing to receive counseling must apply at the resident center of their registered address by the 13th.
The district plans to provide a total of 10 one-on-one customized counseling sessions (once a week for 3 months) from June to selected youth.
Youth selected for the support project can choose a counseling institution suitable for themselves from youth mental health voucher providers throughout Seoul and receive counseling.
For more details, visit the Gangbuk-gu Office website or contact the Gangbuk-gu Job and Economy Division.
Park Gyeom-su, mayor of Gangbuk-gu, said, “We hope this project will greatly restore the mental health of exhausted youth. Gangbuk-gu will do its best to support youth to overcome psychological problems and move forward.”
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
