[GLOBQL ECONOMIC TIMES]  The Youth Stump Foundation opened the ‘Stumpet Multicultural Center’ (pictured), a support space for multicultural families, in Anam-dong, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul, earlier this month. The Stump Center will contribute to multicultural families stably settling in Korea, communicating with the local community, and understanding each other's cultures.

The Stump Center is approximately 330㎡ (approximately 100 pyeong) in size and is equipped with a classroom, a children's library, a small study room, and a ball pit where children can play to their heart's content. It also has a climbing area to help children develop physical and emotional balance.

This center operates language and career education, culture and arts programs, etc. to help members of multicultural families adapt well to Korean society. We conduct a systematic Korean language education program so that immigrants and their families can learn Korean and use it in their daily lives. From beginner to advanced classes, we help you use Korean with confidence through expressions and conversation-focused education that is frequently used in daily life.

It serves as an important platform for people from various cultures to understand each other's cultures through various arts programs, including music, dance, and art.

In order to increase understanding of multiculturalism and reduce prejudice and discrimination, we plan to conduct various awareness improvement programs for Koreans to promote understanding and strengthen social integration.

An official from the Youth Stump Foundation said, “The Stump Center will go beyond providing a physical space and will become the center of a local community where various cultures come together,” adding, “We will provide programs that provide opportunities to establish self-identity and strengthen creativity, which are important during childhood and adolescence.” “We will continue to develop it,” he said.

The Youth Stump Foundation, launched in 2021 as a public interest foundation of Hana Financial Group, noted the rapid increase in the number of people with diverse cultural backgrounds, such as multicultural families and foreign workers, in Korean society. According to the National Statistical Office's population census, there will be 399,000 multicultural households and 1,151,000 people in 2022.

In particular, while the decline in the Korean youth population has become evident, the number of multicultural students is rapidly increasing.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Education, the number of multicultural students last year was 181,178, or about 3.5% of the total 5.218 million students. The number of multicultural students has more than tripled in 10 years from 55,780 in 2013.

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