Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju, Secures Children's Right to Play Safely

'Our Neighborhood Play Environment Diagnosis Project' Promotion

Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City (District Mayor Park Byung-gyu) is making every effort to ensure that children can play safely and freely while confidently enjoying their rights.

On the 10th, Gwangsan-gu announced that it will promote the ‘Our Neighborhood Play Environment Diagnosis Project’ in collaboration with Save the Children to create play spaces where children are the true owners.

The project aims to diagnose playgrounds, which were created from an adult perspective, from the viewpoint of children to establish a child-friendly play environment and guarantee the right to play.

Children will actively participate as the main agents in this project.

The citizen investigation team, which will inspect and diagnose the local play environment, will be composed of both citizens and children. Through an open recruitment process, the team will be formed by the end of this month with a total of 140 members, including 90 children and 50 adults.

After preliminary training, from early August to the end of September, the citizen investigation team and professional investigators will conduct on-site inspections of 89 children’s parks within Gwangsan-gu.

They will thoroughly check and investigate facilities and the overall environment, including accessibility, playability, and the status of play and exercise equipment.

Alongside the on-site diagnosis, a ‘Sprout Civil Service Office’ will be operated to provide children’s rights education and collect opinions from children and facility officials regarding the play environment.

Once all investigations are completed, the results will be analyzed and converted into data regarding the status of facilities. Additionally, a results sharing meeting will be held to gather feedback on the analysis, and a final report will be prepared.

Based on this, Gwangsan-gu plans to seek ways to improve the play environment in cooperation with Save the Children, relevant departments, and related organizations.

Park Byung-gyu, Mayor of Gwangsan-gu, said, “The health and happiness of children are very important tasks that determine our future,” adding, “We will do our best to ensure that children can play safely and freely while confidently enjoying their rights.”