Goheung-gun Successfully Completes Winter Fishing Village Volunteer Camp with Youth from 7 Universities

Korea Habitat Club Combines with Coastal Village New Vitality Promotion Project

Staying in the Village to Improve Sites and Produce Content

Gohung-gun, Jeollanam-do (Governor Gong Young-min) announced that it successfully held the Winter Fishing Village Volunteer Camp together with youth from seven universities (Gangnam University, Korea University, Duksung Women’s University, Seoul National University, Ewha Womans University, Chung-Ang University, Hongik University).

This event, in which university students from Seoul and the metropolitan area carried out various activities such as improving residential environments, creating village content, and educational programs in a super-aged village, is evaluated as a special occasion that practiced new solidarity between generations and regions by engaging with fishing villages facing the issue of regional extinction.

[Photo by Goheung-gun]

The event (Winter University CCYP Joint Fishing Village Volunteer Camp in Gohung), held from the 10th to the 12th at Chwido (Ochi Village), Podu-myeon, involved 14 enrolled students belonging to the Korea Habitat University Club Federation.

The camp, conducted in the target villages of the Fishing Village New Vitality Promotion Project (Chwido-Geumsahang) aimed at overcoming regional extinction and fishing village decline, involved youth staying in villages mostly composed of residents aged 80 and above, promoting the village externally and providing various living services to residents, thereby addressing numerous local issues.

Based on a prior survey of the village’s needs, the club (Korea Habitat) cleaned the homes of elderly living alone with mobility difficulties and organized large waste that had been neglected for a long time, in line with the club’s activity goals such as improving residential environments.

Activities to improve the village environment were also carried out, including removing vines in the backyard of the senior citizens’ center that had been a nuisance due to insects every summer, and directly manufacturing and placing sturdy wooden chairs in resting areas and alleys so residents could comfortably rest while passing through.

Promotional activities that could breathe youth sensibility into the old village site were actively pursued. The youth roamed throughout the village producing various promotional materials such as SNS videos from a young perspective, a recipe book containing residents’ know-how, and desk calendars.

In particular, to coincide with the oyster harvest season, they visited the oyster huts, experienced oyster processing work, and filmed promotional videos.

It was also notable that they conducted diverse play programs with the only elementary school student in the village. The participating youth, having met the elementary student during last summer’s camp and heard that “being in the countryside, I haven’t been able to try popular games,” prepared play activities making Moru dolls for children. They invited five friends from Podu Elementary School to the fishing village and made resin keyrings and gingerbread houses including the Moru dolls. The Podu Elementary School Parent Association also actively supported the event.

This camp is a continuation of last summer’s camp. It was an event to raise youth interest in solving regional problems and to deepen awareness and practice regarding regional extinction, climate crisis, and super-aging phenomena through direct village experience and continuous events.

A student participant said, “I used to think that regional extinction could only be solved by grand methods, but through this activity, I realized that even small individual actions can promote the region and help it escape from crisis.”

Song Ju-min, head of the Chwido-Geumsahang Fishing Village Anchor Organization in Gohung-gun, stated, “Through the curiosity, passion, and interest of the youth who visited the area, new relationships were formed and we confirmed the possibility of injecting young vitality into the fishing village.”

An official from Gohung-gun said, “The area including Chwido and Geumsahang has been designated as a target site for the Fishing Village New Vitality Promotion Project (led by the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries), and various regional social innovation programs including the influx of youth and related populations will continue to be promoted until 2026.”

Gohung = Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Shim Jeong-woo hss79@asiae.co.kr