UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, has signed an agreement in Geneva with the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) that will make it easier for thousands of refugees across the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Europe to enjoy the Olympic sport and martial art of taekwondo and keep healthy.
The WTF, together with the soon-to-be-created Taekwondo Humanitarian Foundation, will provide coaches and equipment for pilot taekwondo programmes already launched in two camps for Syrian refugees – Kilis in Turkey, and Jordan’s Za’atari.
New projects will also bring taekwondo to male and female refugees of all ages in Colombia, Ethiopia, Ghana and Greece.
"UNHCR is constantly looking for ways to improve the lives of refugees, and the agreement is one avenue to do that," said Daniel Endres, Director of External Relations. "I thank the WTF for proactively volunteering their services to assist refugees with sports and peace education. I look forward to working with them in the months and years ahead."
The projects in Kilis and Za’atari have been very popular and have helped keep people fit, occupied and with hope, especially young practitioners. A third programme was launched two months ago in Sindhupalchowk, Nepal.
UNHCR believes that the opportunity empowers refugees worldwide. The Refugee Agency congratulates the WTF for their humanitarian efforts, and looks forward to a partnership that will improve the livelihoods of refugees worldwide.
The programs are envisaged to help overcome a key problem in many refugee camps, which is their lack of educational, sporting and leisure facilities.
"We believe that teaching exercise, sport and the martial art of taekwondo in camps is an effective way to empower refugees. Basic taekwondo requires no equipment, no playing field, no bat, no ball – just the human body," said WTF President Chungwon Choue.
Prior to the signing of the agreement with UNHCR, Choue met Jacques Rogge, Honorary President of the IOC and UN Special Envoy for Youth Refugees and Sport to share, the progress of the recent activities of the WTF on refugees and to plan joint activities in refugee camps in the near future.
He also met with Michael Moller, Director General of the UNOG for mutual understanding and cooperation between the two organizations.
20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is www.aroundtherings.com, for subscribers only
Últimas Noticias
Sinner-Alcaraz, the duel that came to succeed the three phenomenons
Beyond the final result, Roland Garros left the feeling that the Italian and the Spaniard will shape the great duel that came to help us through the duel for the end of the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic era.
Table tennis: Brazil’s Bruna Costa Alexandre will be Olympic and Paralympic in Paris 2024
She is the third in her sport and the seventh athlete to achieve it in the same edition; in Santiago 2023 she was the first athlete with disabilities to compete at the Pan American level and won a medal.
Rugby 7s: the best player of 2023 would only play the medal match in Paris
Argentinian Rodrigo Isgró received a five-game suspension for an indiscipline in the circuit’s decisive clash that would exclude him until the final or the bronze match; the Federation will seek to make the appeal successful.
Rhonex Kipruto, owner of the world record for the 10000 meters on the road, was suspended for six years
The Kenyan received the maximum sanction for irregularities in his biological passport and the Court considered that he was part of a system of “deliberate and sophisticated doping” to improve his performance. He will lose his record and the bronze medal at the Doha World Cup.
Katie Ledecky spoke about doping Chinese swimmers: “It’s difficult to go to Paris knowing that we’re going to compete with some of these athletes”
The American, a seven-time Olympic champion, referred to the case of the 23 positive controls before the Tokyo Games that were announced a few weeks ago and shook the swimming world. “I think our faith in some of the systems is at an all-time low,” he said.
