Dedicated Taekwondo Facility Opens at Azraq Refugee Camp in

Jordan

more than 32,000 refugees, victims of the Syrian civil war, of whom a great proportion are children. The center trains children from the camp in Taekwondo, providing them with physical fitness, sport, self defense, self- confidence and self belief.

The newly constructed, dedicated facility allows the academy to host more students and provide a better training experience with more classes and more diversified activities. Students are able to practice in comfort and safety.

The facility includes a classroom, which allows the THF to implement its education program that teaches Olympic values and the universal values of world citizenship.

“It was with great pride and humility that was able to open the new Taekwondo facility at the Azraq Taekwondo Academy,” said THF Chairman Chungwon Choue.

“The academy has been a great success and has already produced three black belts, but we knew there was even more that we could do to maximize opportunities for these young people,” he added.

Choue thanked Chairman Lu Dezhi of China’s Huamin Charity Foundation and Fujairah Crown Prince Mohammed bin Hamad bin Mohammed Al Sharqi Fujaira for their generous donations to the THF, which enabled the Azraq facility and other THF projects, and also to Taishan Sports Industry Group Co., Ltd. Chairman Zhiliang Bian who provided the new artificial grass lawn outside the gym.

The THF and WT recently signed agreements with the international federations representing badminton, table tennis and wrestling to include these sports alongside Taekwondo. All, like Taekwondo, are economical and easy to deploy.

Noting that its activities in Azraq are the flagship THF projects worldwide, Choue stated that the new facility “will provide a benchmark for future THF projects around the world.”

This means Azraq will be used as a model for THF academies across the world – in Rwanda in Djibouti and elsewhere.

A new, bespoke Azraq Humanitarian Taekwondo training facility was officially inaugurated on April 1, 2018 by the Taekwondo Humanitarian Foundation (THF) and World Taekwondo (WT), just short of two years after the launch of the foundation’s first pilot project in the camp.

President of the Jordan Taekwondo Federation Prince Rashid Bin El Hassan attended the event, along with representatives from other Jordanian organizations, includ- ing the vice president of the Jordan Olympic Committee and the Amman mayor’s office.

Representatives of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, relief agency CARE Jordan and other officials of the foundation who travelled specially from overseas were also present. WT VIPs attending included Vice President Choi Ji-ho, Council members Hazem Naimat and Anatoly Terekhov and Marketing Chair Milan Kwee.

The Azraq Humanitarian Taekwondo Cen- ter began operations on April 27, 2016, as one of the first projects set up in a refugee camp by the THF and WT.

At the end of 2017, the THF and WT took the decision to construct a dedicated Taekwondo training facility in Azraq. This purpose-built facility would make a difference to the quality of lives of hundreds of children.

The camp is located 90kms from the Jordanian-Syrian border and currently hosts