By Israa Mohamed
Video = World Taekwondo's official YouTube channel

A sports festival at a refugee camp in Jordan has sought to use sports to instill hopes and dreams in refugee children and youth.

World Taekwondo, the martial art's world governing body, the Taekwondo Humanitarian Foundation (THF) and World Baseball Softball Confederation on May 1 opened the Hope and Dreams Sports Festival at a Syrian refugee camp in Azraq.

The three-day event was held at the Azraq camp, which houses around 40,000 refugees, another camp in Zaatari and around the Jordanian capital of Amman. 

The opening ceremony that day had children and teens receive open classes in taekwondo, baseball 5 (a mixture of baseball and softball), badminton and basketball.

The Korea Refugee Project's (KRP) 250 taekwondo practitioners held demonstrations of samulnori (traditional percussion music) and their martial art at the Zaatari camp, the largest shelter for Syrian refugees in Jordan.

Through Zaatari Taekwondo Academy, the KRP spreads Korean culture including taekwondo, the Korean language and K-pop at the camp, where about 80,000 such refugees live. In addition to treating the trauma of those who suffered during the 2011 Syrian civil war, the project also provides education in refugee identity.

Other events on May 2 included a visit to the THF Board of Directors, Jordan Olympic Committee and Jordanian national athletes' village to discuss expanding the festival.

The festival's final day on May 3 was held in a Jordanian city, not a refugee zone, and honored the winners of the taekwondo, badminton and baseball 5 competitions. Taekwondo competitors with outstanding results received special qualifications for next year's World Juniors Taekwondo Championships in the United Arab Emirates.

ess8@korea.kr