Governor Kim colors happiness to learning space for multicultural kids.
(Published June 04, 2013)

The signboard unveiling ceremony of ‘Pocheon City Happy School Project Supported by Posco’ was held on June 3.

◇ At the signboard unveiling ceremony of ‘Pocheon City Happy School Project Supported by Posco’, Gyeonggi Governor Kim Moon-soo and officials are taking a commemorative photograph with children. ⓒ Gyeonggi G-News / Yoo Je-hoon

Seonhan Multicultural Family Support Center of Pocheon City became a ‘happy school’, supported by Gyeonggi Province and Posco.

Gyeonggi Province and Gyeonggi Provincial Institute for Lifelong Learning held the signboard unveiling ceremony in Seonhan Multicultural Family Support Center on June 3 to celebrate ‘Pocheon City Happy School Project Supported by Posco’.

About 100 guests including Gyeonggi Governor Kim Moon-Soo, Posco Vice-president Hwang Eun-yeon, Pochen City Mayor Seo Jang-won, the chief priest of Seonhan Multicultural Family Support Center Park Soon-ho, the director of Gyeonggi Provincial Institute for Lifelong Learning Lee Seong, marriage immigrant women, and children from multicultural families participated in the event.

After watching NANTA performance by children from multicultural families, which was the pre-event, Governor Kim expressed his congratulations, saying “I am very pleased in that Seonhan Multicultural Family Support Center now has a good facility by the support of Posco. I saw a few kids who are lacking in confidence during the NANTA performance, but I expect they will gain confidence through Happy School in the coming years.”◇ The signboard unveiling ceremony is being held in Seonhan Multicultural Family Support Center in Pocheon City. ⓒ Gyeongg G-News / Yoo Je-hoon

Seonhan Multicultural Family Support Center, located in Songwoo-ri Soheul-eup Pocheon City, was established by ‘The Sisters of the Good Shepherd Jesus’ in 2008 after they raised funds. It moved to ‘Solmoru Catholic Church’ in 2011 but had a difficult time due to over 20-year-old decrepit facilities.

Currently, the center runs after-school class, Korean class, and driver’s license acquisition class for about 100 marriage immigrant women and children from multicultural families. From the project of this time, the center will be offered classroom for customized education for multicultural families, cooking classroom for marriage immigrants and counseling office.

‘Pocheon City Happy School Project Supported by Posco’ aims to create the infrastructure for lifelong educating facilities, e.g. by repairing classrooms and supporting tools and materials for learning, in order to increase opportunities of lifelong learning of multicultural children, and is considered as a good example of ‘lifelong education-type social contribution’ by the cooperation between the government and the industry.

Gyeonggi Provincial Institute for Lifelong Learning and Posco are carrying out ‘Happy School Facility Infrastructure Support Project’, in which they are creating the infrastructure for lifelong learning facilities by remodeling unused spaces in towns of Pocheon, Siheung, Seongnam, Anseong, and Ansan City to learning spaces.◇ Governor Kim is painting the wall of the support center with children from multicultural families. ⓒ Gyeonggi G-News / Yoo Je-hoon

The representative of marriage immigrants, Jang Wei, expressed her feeling, saying “I have learned Korean in this center since 2008, and it really helped. This project will significantly help many immigrant women in the future.’ She also said, “Now, children also can develop their dream more than before in good conditions.”

“I had no place to ask about things after come to Korea. This place considerably helped me.” Nagija from Uzbekistan expressed her gratitude. “Although immigrant women can hardly correct pronunciation even when they learn Korean, our children will be able to use the correct Korean language.”

Meanwhile, the number of foreigners residing in Gyeonggi Province has increased 98% in 5 years from 214,727 in 2007 to 424,946 in 2012, and that of multicultural families has been increasing at a rapid pace, too. Therefore, it is an urgent matter to offer customized education and services for multicultural families.

Gyeonggi Governor Kim Moon-soo said, “Gyeonggi Province is supporting immigrant women wherever they are, for example, by creating Multicultural Family Bureau for the first time in the nation and employing immigrant women as public employees in order to reinforce field administration.” He added, “We will keep trying to actively support ‘education welfare’, which is more emphasized as the nation is more developed, so that every resident can enjoy a happy life.”◇ Governor Kim is awarding an appreciation plaque to Posco Vice-president Hwang Eun-yeon. ⓒ Gyeonggi G-News / Yoo Je-hoon

ⓒ Gyeonggi G-News | Lee Joon-kyun eyekle0723@kg21.net

http://gnews.gg.go.kr/news/news_detail.asp?number=201306041106357055C048&s_code=C048