Programs for Foreign Wives    

The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Family Affairs has announced that it has put the Headquarters of the Healthy Family Support Center in charge of developing and running programs, accrosss the country, that are intended to help women from abroad who are married to Korean men adjust to Korean society as soon as possible.

The Center offers professional and practical assistance to intercultural families by developing and managing specially designed programs. It also provides classes in the Korean language and culture, as well as childcare instructors who can be dispatched to many regions across the country. 

In an effort to help new brides ajust more quickly and easily, the Center arranges for them to meet other foreign wives, who have been in Korea for some time.  It also supports the networking of international marriage families by encouraging them to form their own organizations and operates a monitoring committee in an effort to reduce the feelings of loneliness and isolation.

However, acccording to Jung Min-ja,  the head of the Headquarters of the Healthy Family Support Center, there are also programmes for the whole family, in-laws included.  Through these programs, it is hoped that families will come to better appreciate the cultural differences, and learn the tools and techniques of effective communication. The center also puts special focus on the education of the Korean husbands.

Free family consultations are given by professionals to facilitate the process of psychological adaptation to Korean society and family life, with the Center also sending instructors to the homes of international families to give them lessons in how to raise their children according to Korean culture and to help with the unfamiliar language. This programme is reportedly  especially popular among those who live in rural areas. About 3,000 instructors  (staff and volunteers) who have been trained at the center are taking part in this project in 2008, along with about 20,000 families. Farming skills will be taught to wives who live in agrarian and fishing regions, and informative magazines specially designed for these wives are being published with the support of the government.

For more information on the headquarter of the Healthy Family Support Center, visit their website: http://www.familynet.or.kr/ (Korean language only).


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