Richard Barnor, THF Board member, spent a little over a week in Eswatini during which he participated in two historic events organized by the national federation for both Taekwondo and THF activities.
The first was the grading exercise in the city of Manzini which was well attended by representatives from the Melindza refugee reception center. He was told by the camp director that even though it is called a reception center, some of the refugees have been there since 2002. The kids were bused in with special permission from their parents and the UNHCR directors of the camp.
While the refugees had only been practicing Taekwondo for a short period, it was encouraging to see their rapid progress and potential talent. The sport has given them a break away from the routine life in the camp. and it is an opportunity to mix with other athletes and aspire to. All of them gave it their full effort. Saturday couldn’t come quickly enough for them to show their poomsae and kyroogi skills. Richard Barnor drove to the refugee camp two days later to watch them train. They were so enthusiastic and very proud of their newly acquired skills and they were eager to show it off to Barnor as the visiting THF and World Taekwondo representative.
Barnor had a chance to speak on behalf of World Taekwondo and THF to the kids, their parents and the camp directors about our program for refugees and how it is rapidly growing in popularity because of the positive change that it is making in the lives of the kids around the world.
Next on agenda the following day was the meeting scheduled with the Honorable minister for Sport, Culture and Youth Affairs Mr.Madze Harris Bulunga. Also present at the meeting were the CEOs of both their NOC and sports council. After an exchange of greetings the President and Secretary General, they gave an update about the state of Taekwondo and about their program with the refugees in the camp. Barnor was very impressed, and he said he had no idea that there was such a program going on for the refugees. He commended Eswatini Taekwondo Federation for their work with refugees and thanked them for bringing him up to speed.
On July 2, Barnor was invited to a regional tournament attended by six surrounding nations from the region with over 350 participants including refugee athletes from THF project (first since covid).
THF Chairman Chungwon Choue commenting on the visit said: “It is wonderful to hear that so much great work is taking place in Eswatini and more refugees are benefitting from Taekwondo. Taekwondo has so much to offer, and we hope that more of our friends from Africa will be willing to create new projects for refugees in the region.”
