Shin Gye-yong, the mayor of Gwacheon in Gyeonggi Province, emphasized on September 8 that "religious institutions are vital community resources that practice the values of life respect and neighborly care in residents' daily lives."
Mayor Shin is actively working to enhance community care for citizen life protection and mental health promotion.
The Gwacheon Mental Health Welfare Center will hold a 'Four Major Religious Groups Unite for Life Respect Campaign' on September 12 at Central Park in Gwacheon to commemorate World Suicide Prevention Day.
This campaign will involve participation from the four major religious groups in the area: Christianity, Buddhism, Catholicism, and Won Buddhism.
The event aims to share the importance of life and the value of caring for neighbors, transcending differences in religion and beliefs.
Mayor Shin plans to focus on spreading a culture of life respect linked to community resources and strengthening the mental health safety net for citizens through this campaign.
At the event, the suicide prevention center will offer citizen participation programs, including making keycap keyrings, creating eco-bags for life love, distributing helium balloons with life love messages, screening awareness improvement videos, and taking four-frame photos.
The four major religious groups will also provide experiential programs such as soap making, growing Scandiamos, creating colorful bracelets, and making Wonmani to convey the meanings of neighborly love, compassion, life care, harmony, and coexistence.
In particular, mental health screenings and suicide prevention awareness surveys will be conducted for citizens, and on-site counseling and connections to professional counseling services will be available for those in need.
Mayor Shin stated that the results of the surveys will be used as foundational data for future life respect and suicide prevention initiatives, aiming to continuously strengthen the community safety net for citizens' mental health.
He added, "I hope this campaign by the four major religious groups will serve as an opportunity to reflect on the value of life and pay attention to each other's difficulties."
The campaign will take place on September 12 at Central Park in Gwacheon, and all citizens are welcome to participate.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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