Northern Gyeonggi Comprehensive Disability Welfare Support Center Launched in Full-Scale Development

[Suwon Ilbo=Park No-hoon] Gyeonggi Province announced on the 25th that it is proceeding in full-scale development with the construction of the 'Northern Gyeonggi Comprehensive Disability Welfare Support Center' to improve welfare for people with disabilities in the northern region. This comes three years after the basic plan was established in 2017.

The 'Northern Gyeonggi Comprehensive Disability Welfare Support Center' is being built to provide comprehensive welfare services for people with disabilities, their families, and workers at disability facilities in the northern region, with a total project cost of 20.1 billion won.

The facility will be constructed in Samsam-dong, Yangju City, with a basement level and four above-ground floors, covering a total area of 6,520 square meters. Construction is planned to begin in the first half of this year and the center is scheduled to open in 2022. Upon completion, access to services for people with disabilities and facility workers in the northern region is expected to improve significantly.
The center will house the provincial Visual Impairment Welfare Center, the Northern Gyeonggi Advocacy Agency, the Northern Gyeonggi Disability Family Support Center, the Northern Disability Assistive Device Center, and other disability centers directly managed by the province.
Additional facilities including a smart comprehensive civil affairs consultation center, a disability products exhibition hall, a disability dietary experience center, an assistive device repair center, an auditorium, education rooms, and conference rooms are also planned to be established.

Bae Han-il, director of the Northern Social Welfare Division at Gyeonggi Province, stated, "We will complete the Northern Gyeonggi Comprehensive Disability Support Center at an early date, establish a cooperative network among people with disabilities and related organizations and groups in the northern region, and work even more diligently to advance welfare for the approximately 160,000 people with disabilities in northern Gyeonggi."

Meanwhile, the ratio of people with disabilities relative to the provincial population is 4.1% in southern Gyeonggi (400,000 people/9.79 million), while in northern Gyeonggi it is higher at 4.6% (160,000 people/3.45 million).