Seo-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City (Mayor Kim Ikang) announced on the 27th that it held the ‘Our Neighborhood Neighbor Care Group Activity Sharing Meeting’ at the Seo-gu Office Deulbul Hall.
Since March, Seo-gu has formed a group of 108 ‘Our Neighborhood Neighbor Care Group’ members through an open recruitment process, providing various services to individuals at risk of lonely death due to social isolation, thereby contributing to the welfare improvement of residents.
Seogu held the 'Our Neighborhood Neighbor Care Group Activity Sharing Meeting' at Deulbul Hall in Seogu Office on the 27th. [Photo by Seogu]
In particular, a full survey was conducted through home visits for 2,397 households at risk of lonely death, selecting 1,418 individuals as subjects for continuous management. They are being managed with regular visits, welfare checks, customized services, and new subjects are being steadily discovered.
At this activity sharing meeting, the Neighbor Care Group members shared various cases they personally experienced while visiting isolated neighbors and finding hidden neighbors, and discussed ways to effectively promote neighbor care in the future.
The activists who presented that day shared outstanding cases such as ▲‘Knock Knock on the Heart (Yangdong)’, which discovers individuals living alone with no family contact through a full survey ▲‘Stop Lonely Death! (Sangmu 2-dong)’, which continuously checks on neighbors through the ‘Village Sisters’ in Sangmu 2-dong ▲‘The Sister is Back (Geumho 1-dong)’, which operates a monthly ‘Visiting Resident Touching Counseling Center’ ▲‘The Lonely One Who Wants to Hide Deeply (Dongcheon-dong)’, which conducts focused monitoring and field visits for seniors aged 65 and older.
Song Kyungae, Director of the Welfare Policy Division of Seo-gu, said, “As social structural changes deepen individual isolation and disconnection, leading to an increase in lonely deaths, we will expand the social safety net and establish a local community lonely death prevention and management system through the activities of the Neighbor Care Group. Through this activity sharing meeting, we will review and evaluate past activities and work to create a Seo-gu where no neighbors are marginalized or isolated.”
Meanwhile, in March, Seo-gu invited Kim Saebyeol, a bereavement organizer, to strengthen the capabilities of the Neighbor Care Group, providing education on understanding the lonely death risk group and prevention and response measures tailored to them. In May, Professor Im Geol from Songwon University was invited to provide education and discussion on the basic qualities, roles, duties, and counseling techniques of the Neighbor Care Group.
Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Shin Dongho baekok@asiae.co.kr
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