Children’s rights

Refugee children’s rights

MAP runs support for refugee children on the principle that every child should be able to grow up with dignity, whatever their nationality or residence status. It provides childcare and child-rearing support for preschool children, child-rearing and medical cost support for infants up to 18 months old, an emotional support program for child caregivers (Dear Mommy), and support for children in crisis.

Ongoing 2019~

Background

In conflicts and crises around the world, children are the first to be affected and the ones affected for longest. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child states that every child has the right to protection and to grow up, regardless of nationality or residence status.

Refugee children who are born or grow up in Korea often cannot receive public support such as childcare subsidies because of their parents' residence status. Some stay at home for long periods without attending daycare, and some put off treatment because of the burden of medical costs. In many cases, parents who are also dealing with livelihood and residence problems bear the care alone.

MAP works with an international child relief organization to support childcare and child-rearing costs for preschool refugee children and to help families with infants and children in crisis. It visits families regularly to follow the children's growth and also looks after the hearts of the parents who care for them.

What we do

Child-rearing and childcare support for preschool children

MAP supports child-rearing, childcare and medical costs for refugee children aged 0 to 6 who are not yet in school, and checks each family's situation and the child's development through regular phone monitoring and home visits. MAP works with Save the Children Korea.

since July 2019Save the Children Korea
Support for infants up to 18 months old (Good Samaritan Refugee Children Support Project)

MAP supports child-rearing and medical costs for refugee children aged 18 months or younger in single-parent households or households with undocumented status. The first cohort began in April 2023, and support has continued through the eighth cohort in 2026.

since April 2023Good Samaritan's House
Dear Mommy, an emotional support program for child caregivers

In this six-month emotional support program, refugee women who care for children choose for themselves the gift they most want to give their child each month. The first cohort began in May 2024, and the program has continued through the third cohort.

since 2024
Building a child protection response system (ended)

In 2021, MAP co-developed a guidebook on responding to abuse of refugee children together with the Refugee Children Working Group of the Korea Refugee Rights Network. It sets out the legal basis and intervention procedures so that practitioners can respond to abuse in refugee families.

2021Refugee Children Working Group of the Korea Refugee Rights Network

History

2019
On June 12, MAP arranged for 3 refugee students to take part in the scholarship award ceremony of the Dongcheon Foundation. On July 11, it signed an agreement with Save the Children on the refugee children support project. Save the Children has run a refugee children support project in Korea since 2011, and MAP takes part in it as a partner organization.
2020
Under the agreement project with Save the Children, MAP supported child-rearing and childcare costs for refugee children, and the number of children supported grew from 12 in the first quarter to 17 in the fourth. On September 23, Green Hospital, MAP and other organizations, eight in all, signed an agreement to support medical costs for undocumented children and refugee children.
2021
Under the agreement project with Save the Children, MAP supported child-rearing, childcare and medical costs for 21 refugee children, and through the Dongcheon Scholarship supported the livelihood and education of 3 refugee children. With the Refugee Children Working Group of the Korea Refugee Rights Network, it made a guidebook for responding to abuse of refugee children, released in January. It was written by Duroo, Save the Children, MAP and Friend, Migrants’ Center, with the cooperation of UNHCR.
2022
MAP supported child-rearing, childcare and medical costs for 24 preschool refugee children aged 0 to 6. It delivered daily necessities and food to 25 households hit hard economically by COVID-19, and paid 100,000 won in education costs to each of 46 refugee children at the start of the new school year.
2023
In April, with Good Samaritan's House, MAP began a project providing child-rearing costs of 350,000 won per month and medical costs to refugee children of single-parent households up to 18 months old, and supported 8 children over the year. The number of children supported under the agreement project with Save the Children was 29.
2024
Childcare support for preschool children reached 22 children, and child-rearing support for infants up to 18 months old reached 12 children. In May, MAP began the first cohort of Dear Mommy, an emotional support program for child caregivers, and supported 5 refugee women with an activity allowance of 50,000 won per month for six months. MAP saw again how children's residence status leaves them outside welfare, for example when they cannot register a disability or are refused admission to long-term protection shelters.
2025
In the first half of the year, MAP supported childcare and child-rearing costs under the agreement with Save the Children Korea for 14 children. The fourth cohort of support for infants up to 18 months old ran with four families from November 2024 to April 2025, and an activity report was shared in July. From March, it ran the second cohort of Dear Mommy with four mothers.
2026
In March, MAP surveyed more than 30 applying families and began accompanying 10 of them, supporting childcare costs for children under 7 in 6 families and child-rearing costs for infants up to 18 months old in 4 families. In May, it took part in the Save the Children International Children’s Marathon, and in June it had a picnic at Seoul Grand Park with the families of the third cohort of Dear Mommy.

Who it is for

Preschool refugee children from birth to age 6: asylum seekers, persons with humanitarian status, and undocumented children with a refugee background (childcare and child-rearing support)
Refugee children up to 18 months old, including asylum seekers, persons with humanitarian status and undocumented residents (Good Samaritan Refugee Children Support Project)

How to apply

Apply through a Google Form (Korean, English, Arabic, French) following the recruitment notice for each cohort.

Phone010-8437-0232
Emaildiversity@mapcast.org

In numbers

14 children: Children receiving childcare and child-rearing support under the Save the Children agreement, first half of 2025
22 children: Children receiving preschool childcare support in 2024
12 children: Children up to 18 months old receiving child-rearing support in 2024 (KRW 350,000 per month)
20 children: Children supported by the Good Samaritan Refugee Children Support Project, cohorts 1 to 4
5 people: Caregivers supported by Dear Mommy in 2024 (KRW 50,000 per month, six months)