Health ministry visits Naju football class created under disability budget pilot

South Korea's health ministry said Tuesday that First Vice Minister Hyun Soo-yup visited Naju, South Jeolla Province, to meet children and parents taking part in the individualized budget program for people with disabilities.

The program converts part of a service voucher into a personal budget, letting a person with a disability buy the goods or services they need under a plan they draw up themselves. It is open to people with disabilities who qualify for at least one of four vouchers covering activity support, developmental day and after-school activities, and developmental rehabilitation.

The visit, at Naju Sports Town at 3:30 p.m., included a football game and gift-giving for the children, with T-shirts and shoes handed out. About 50 people attended, including Hyun, the ministry's women's futsal club, Naju city officials, the Korea Development Institute for the Disabled and the Korea Social Security Information Service.

Officials highlighted the case of children and parents in the program who organized a football class for disabled children in their own community.

Hyun said the program helps people with disabilities design and decide their own lives. "Just as a disabled child's small wish to play football on a field led to the opening of a football class for disabled children in the local community, we will do our best so that the individualized budget program can establish itself as a system that genuinely guarantees choice and self-determination for people with disabilities," he said.

For the fourth pilot starting next year, it plans to introduce a card after improving the electronic voucher system to make the program easier to use.