Namwon-si to Implement Comprehensive Winter Measures for Vulnerable Groups Until Next Month

[Namwon=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Jeong Young-gwon] Namwon City, Jeonbuk, announced on the 5th that it will implement a ‘Comprehensive Winter Measures’ plan to intensively identify, support, and manage vulnerable households such as those with illnesses, disabilities, and elderly living alone to ensure they can safely get through the winter without accidents by the end of next month.

The city plans to first utilize big data to identify vulnerable households in welfare blind spots, such as those with business suspensions or closures, daily workers who lost jobs, overdue insurance premiums, health insurance fees, and unpaid communication bills.

Additionally, the city is doing its best to minimize blind spots by using the visiting health and welfare teams in eup, myeon, and dong, as well as the eup, myeon, and dong chiefs, local community security councils, and village chiefs as part of a human network.

Through this comprehensive plan, the city directly visited and surveyed 193 households vulnerable to housing and heating issues during winter.

The target households included 96 with unstable housing such as small rooms, inns, and vinyl greenhouses, and 97 households at heating risk using wood and briquette boilers to assess their risk levels.

Urgent cases were switched to oil boilers, and 82 million KRW was urgently provided for heating and livelihood support, while a contact network was organized for regular management.

The ‘One Household a Day Visiting Communication Administration’ led by eup, myeon, and dong chiefs involves 23 chiefs visiting sites daily to listen to the sincere life stories of residents and carefully examine their difficulties. This welfare administrative service unique to Namwon City has been steadily promoted since last year under the hard work of the eup, myeon, and dong chiefs and the special attention of the Namwon mayor.

Furthermore, thorough preparations are being made to prevent low-income residents from facing winter risks by supporting heating costs, briquettes, and blankets, and promoting immediate reporting to eup, myeon, and dong administrative welfare centers when vulnerable households are identified.

Mayor Choi Kyung-sik said, “I ask for continued attention so that vulnerable groups are not neglected in care during the winter season,” and added, “We will do our best to run alongside the people and create a happier Namwon together.”

Namwon=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Jeong Young-gwon baekok@asiae.co.kr