"Thanks to the temporary care service at Seoul's regional base Meium Center, I was able to take my first steps into a new workplace with peace of mind."

On the morning of the 4th, while Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon was visiting the Dongjak No. 2 regional base Our Neighborhood Meium Center located in Dongjak-gu, Seoul, a child approached him and shyly handed him a letter, saying, "My mom wrote this."

Receiving the unexpected gift, Mayor Oh made eye contact with the child and said, "Please tell your mom I got her letter," and opened the envelope in the car on his way back to City Hall.

The author of the "mother's hand-written letter" is a woman in her 40s residing in Dongjak-gu.

In the letter, she introduced herself as raising two children in the sixth and second grades of elementary school, and explained that she secured a job as a rookie social worker last month, resuming her career as a social worker which she had put off for 13 years due to childcare.

She went on to share how desperate she felt at the time of job hunting, saying, "My biggest worry ahead of employment was child care. There were no spots available in school care classes, and the nearby Meium Center was the same."

"Returning to society after more than a decade brought more anxiety than excitement," she wrote. "However, thanks to the temporary care service at the base Meium Center, I was able to take my first steps into a new workplace with peace of mind."

In particular, she expressed her gratitude by saying that her older child in the sixth grade was able to have a hearty lunch thanks to Seoul City's "DeunDeun Hanski" (hearty meal) program before heading to a private academy, which significantly eased her worries as a mother.


She said, "I came to realize how much of a mountain school vacations feel like to working moms who have to juggle work and childcare, and I am thankful that I was able to climb that mountain easily," adding, "Thanks to the care safety net created by Seoul City, a career-interrupted woman was able to re-establish herself as a member of society."

Mayor Oh was reportedly moved by the working mom's sincerity and gratitude, prompting him to review Seoul's childcare policies once again.

Seoul City operates Our Neighborhood Meium Centers to reduce care gaps for elementary school students after school and during school vacations.

The city plans to expand the current 268 centers to 404 by 2030.

The Dongjak base Our Neighborhood Meium Center visited by the Mayor on this day serves as the elementary care hub for the Dongjak and Yeongdeungpo districts, allowing children aged 6 to 12 in need of care to apply for temporary care even if they are not regular users.

During school vacations, it operates from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM on weekdays, and from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM on Saturdays.

The usage fee is 2,500 won per session, including snack and program fees, and reservations can be made through the Our Neighborhood Meium Portal.

The center provides emergency and temporary care in response to parents' sudden overtime work, hospital visits, or care gaps during vacations.

It also operates a service where professional staff accompany sick children through the entire hospital visit process.

In the first half of this year alone, a total of 7,753 people used the Dongjak Center.

Among them, about 2,000 children used temporary and emergency care, and 3,000 used programs linked with local care institutions.

Forty-two people also used the hospital accompaniment service for sick children.

This summer, Seoul City also launched the "Seoul Eye DeunDeun Hanski" project, the nation's first to provide both lunch and childcare during school vacations.

It provides lunch as well as play, reading, and experiential activities for children aged 6 to 12 across 226 locations in 25 autonomous districts.

The usage fee for five weekdays is 10,000 won.

For households with infants and toddlers, Seoul-type hourly specialized daycare centers are operated across 25 autonomous districts, allowing parents to drop off preschool children aged 7 or younger (with at least 6 months of age) by the hour.

They can be used for up to 60 hours per month, and the fee is 2,000 won per hour.

Bolstered by Seoul City's expanding childbirth and childcare support policies, the number of newborns in Seoul has been on an upward trend for 26 consecutive months since April 2024.

Cumulative newborns from January to May this year increased by 18% compared to the same period last year.

An official from Seoul City said today (the 5th), "While the increase in newborns cannot be attributed solely to the effect of a specific policy, the city will continue to expand neighborhood-based care infrastructure so that parents can balance work and parenting."

(Photo: Provided by Seoul Metropolitan Government, Yonhap News)