Just Dream site in Chungcheongnam-do Province (Chungnam Provincial Government)

By Jeong Euiseok

Just Dream, a welfare project that provides immediate aid with food and daily necessities without prior income verification, will be expanded nationwide.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare on Sept. 6 said 55 cities, counties and districts that have not yet participated in the program will be covered sequentially this month.

In December last year, Just Dream began as a pilot program at 57 locations nationwide and has since been used by about 210,000 people. Among them, 44,712 received welfare consultations and 4,437 were referred to public welfare programs like basic livelihood security and emergency welfare assistance.

In addition, the ministry will also launch Visiting Just Dream, a service to assist vulnerable groups who have difficulty visiting facilities including senior citizens with limited mobility, people with disabilities, and residents of remote islands and rural areas.

The service has three formats. The town, township and neighborhood welfare model has mobile health and welfare teams travel to villages to deliver supplies and provide welfare consultations. The community resource model sends supplies through community networks such as volunteers. And the public institution collaboration model uses local governments to provide application information at post offices, allowing postal workers to deliver supplies along with mail.

More information including locations and operating hours by region is available by searching for "Just Dream" or on the official websites of the ministry (https://www.mohw.go.kr/) and the Korea Foodbank (https://foodbank1377.org (Korean only)).

innocence@korea.kr