"Children’s education should not suffer in multi-cultural families," stated Kim MoonSoo, governor of Gyeonggi Province. He placed emphasis on the establishment of multi-cultural kindergartens along with providing assistance for multi-cultural infants and children.
Kim MoonSoo, governor of Gyeonggi Province, visited Ansan Adventist Multi-cultural Family Service Center (MFSC) on March 10, 2014. During this visit to the center, the governor took a tour of the facilities and watched a small concert, which included a guitar group and a team performing nanta and Korean traditional music. After the concert, the governor sat together with 20 foreign workers and multi-cultural families to listen to the problems and obstacles they face as they live in Korea. The governor even spent the night in the guest house of the center in order to listen to more stories and left early the following morning.
The main agenda items dealt with in the "multi-cultural meeting" were: 1) educational problems of the foreign workers’ children and 2) assistance for multi-cultural single parent families. MFSC asked the governor to permit MFSC to become a social welfare institution and to have public workers helping the administration. Many other issues were brought forward and were discussed in order to look for solutions.
The governor designated an officer to take responsibility for the things to be taken care of, and the officer-in-charge answered, "The given agenda items will be discussed in the provincial government to find solutions. Even though some agenda items are delicate and hard to solve within the current law system, we will try to cooperate with other government offices to make improvements."
As Governor Kim MoonSoo was taking a tour of the MFSC facilities, he showed great interest in the Mother and Child program and the multi-cultural kindergartens at the MFSC. He heard from the multi-cultural kindergarten teachers that there are no appropriate kindergartens for foreign workers and Russian compatriots due to high educational fees and language barriers. Hearing this, the governor once again told officials to remove the obstacles of the current kindergarten system. He also emphasized the importance of establishing multi-cultural kindergartens and reinforcing the children caring system so that every child should be receiving proper education.
Other issues, such as divorce, raising children, visas, etc., were brought to the table by married migrant women, foreign students, and foreign workers living in Korea as they met with the governor until late at night. Since Korea is stepping rapidly into a multi-cultural society, these issues should not only be dealt with in the government, but they should also be discussed in various ways for constant development, including religious approaches and considerations.