Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju Strengthens Public Funeral Support to Prevent "Lonely Deaths"

Gwangsan-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 19th that institutional grounds have been established to strengthen the public funeral support project.

The Gwangsan-gu Council recently passed the Public Funeral Support Ordinance (proposed by the district mayor), which includes support for funerals covering unclaimed deceased and solitary deaths.

The ordinance expands the scope of public funeral support recipients from low-income groups to general unclaimed individuals and strengthens support such as enshrinement in columbariums and conducting memorial ceremonies.

Park Byung-gyu, mayor of Gwangsan-gu, stated, “With the revision of the ordinance, the public funeral support project in Gwangsan-gu will be more substantial and have a stable basis for implementation. We will actively strive to ensure that any unclaimed deceased person does not face loneliness and can have a dignified farewell through sincere and respectful public funerals.”

Meanwhile, Gwangsan-gu has so far supported public funerals mainly for low-income unclaimed individuals such as basic livelihood security recipients, and for general unclaimed individuals who are not welfare beneficiaries, it has provided humanitarian corpse handling without funeral ceremonies. As the number of unclaimed deceased who cannot hold funerals due to family breakdown or poverty increases, in April, the district signed business agreements with religious organizations and funeral halls to undertake support projects that honor the posthumous treatment of unclaimed deceased persons.