Taekwondo helps young Syrians build better future at Azraq refugee camp

A Syrian refugee taekwondo competitor sits on a podium at Prince Hamzah Hall in the Jordanian capital of Amman after the Hope and Dreams Taekwondo Championships, Feb. 27. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

By Lee Hae-rin

AZRAQ, Jordan ― For Ismaeel Almtlaq, an 18-year-old Syrian refugee living at Azraq refugee camp in Jordan, a smartphone used to be the only tool to connect him with the outside world ― although sometimes he even found using the internet via the device difficult due to the limited electricity supply.

He and his family moved to neighboring Jordan seeking safety at the outbreak of the Civil War. They settled at Azraq refugee camp in June 2016. Since then, Jordan and the refugee camp have become their sanctuary and a second home, which he cherishes and appreciates.

However, his daily life in Azraq is "routine and boring," Almtlaq said in an interview with The Korea Times through Instagram. "But I try to make it beautiful and enjoyable by introducing taekwondo into my daily life."

He and his brothers Muhammad and Ali practice taekwondo on a daily basis, while also teaching the Korean martial art to his six-year-old sister, Judy.

Almtlaq started practicing the sport at the age of 11 in 2016 under the guidance of Coach Asif Sabah from the Azraq Taekwondo Academy.

"I didn't know taekwondo at all (back then)," he said, "but it has turned me into a different person."

He said taekwondo taught him how to be patient and control his anger, adding, "It made my personality strong and gave me self-confidence. I like taekwondo because it is a way to achieve peace, ethics and tolerance … I also feel able to protect myself and those around me."

His temporary residence in Azraq is the second refugee camp built in the country to shelter Syrian refugees following the Za'atari refugee camp. The first sight of the camp is uniform rows of white tin caravans stretching out over the horizon of an arid and empty expanse 100 kilometers from the Jordanian capital Amman.

Developed and operated by the United Nations High Commission of Refugees (UNHCR) and the Jordanian government since its establishment in 2014, it houses over 40,000 among 670,000 registered Syrian refugees in Jordan and provides them with protection, basic needs, food and education. An overwhelming 80 percent of the displaced population from Syria live in urban areas outside the camp, where the UNHCR's support in housing and healthcare are far less accessible.

However, Almtlaq and his young peers need more than just basic survival. They need psychological support and means of rehabilitation to recover from the traumatizing atrocities they experienced at young ages. They crave finding hope and meaning in life, having fun and the possibilities of a better future. They crave feeling connected to the world, just like anybody else.

Feb. 25 was a day of festivity for Almtlaq and around 40 young taekwondo practitioners at the Azraq Taekwondo Academy. The inaugural edition of the Hope and Dreams Sports Festival was held at the Humanitarian Sports Center there, jointly organized by World Taekwondo (WT), the Taekwondo Humanitarian Foundation (THF) and the World Baseball and Softball Confederation (WBSC).

Young female Syrian refugee taekwondo practitioners hold a "poomsae" demonstration at the Humanitarian Sports Center at Azraq refugee camp in Jordan during the inaugural edition of Hope and Dreams Sports Festival, Feb. 25. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

The gymnasium, where they held daily taekwondo practice and training, was filled with joy, excitement, and the participants' thunder-like shrieks of concentration in Korean. Their moves and salutes were disciplined and fierce, and their eyes were full of confidence and determination.

They held a round of taekwondo demonstrations and physical activities, which was greeted with enthusiasm and warm encouragement from the audience of international sports federations' representatives and foreign delegations. The WT, the THF and the WBSC as well as the Association of Summer Olympic International Federation (ASOIF) and the Korean and Australian embassies in Jordan were in attendance.

The Azraq Taekwondo Academy is the starting and flagship point for the THF's grassroots movement initiated in 2015.

Asif Sabah, left, a coach at Azraq refugee camp taekwondo academy, and 16-year-old Syrian refugee Othman Al-Ayoub, right, demonstrate flying kicks while Muhammad Al-Ayoub, center, poses at the Humanitarian Sports Center of Azraq refugee camp during the inaugural Hope and Dreams Sports Festival, Feb. 25. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

WT President and THF Chairman Choue Chung-won, who first envisioned taekwondo education for refugees and displaced people, said he vividly remembers his first visit to the Azraq camp in 2015.

"What can Olympic sports do for these young refugee children? And how can we contribute to their lives? The answer was to give them hope and dreams through sports," he said.

Starting with Azraq in Jordan, the WT now operates taekwondo academies at four other refugee camps in Rwanda, Eswatini and Turkey. The Korean martial art has a lower entry barrier as a sport due to not requiring any expensive equipment and facilities while teaching players discipline, self-defense, respect for others and order.

Today, Jordan is known as a taekwondo powerhouse in the Middle East. The sport's national popularity and government-led support contributed to the success of these humanitarian initiatives.

Eight-year-old Syrian taekwondo athlete Doaa Al-Ayoub, left, spars with another Syrian refugee during the annual Hope and Dreams Taekwondo Championships at Prince Hamzah Hall in Amman, Jordan, Feb. 27. Al-Ayoub became the youngest refugee taekwondo athlete to obtain a black belt at the age of six in 2021. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

Taekwondo has become one of the most popular and widely practiced sports in Jordan since it was introduced in 1973. In 2016, it brought them their very first Olympic medal from the Rio Olympic Games as Ahmad Abughaush defeated Russia's Alexey Denisenko and clinched a gold medal.

Over a million of its 10 million population practice the sport at over 150 taekwondo centers in Jordan as of 2020. There are 85 international and 400 national taekwondo referees at the Jordan Taekwondo Federation (JTF).

The JTF, along with the Jordanian government, shares a strong will and dedication to the humanitarian initiatives of the WT and the THF, and provides refugee athletes certain administrative and financial support, senior WT official Jerry Ling said. Since refugee athletes face many restrictions on travel and they train with limited resources, such help is needed.

Taekwondo grassroots movement

Under such circumstances, taekwondo has opened a new chapter in the lives of young Syrian refugees, according to coach Sabah, one of the founding members of the taekwondo project at the Azraq camp.

The Jordanian native started learning the Korean martial art at the age of 19 in 1988. He started teaching taekwondo in 2002 at his own training center in a village near the refugee camp where he encountered Syrian refugees during training. Deeply moved by the joy and positive impact the sports brought to those individuals, he joined the THF's cause and has been training young refugees at the Azraq academy since it opened in April 2016.

"My main motivation is simply giving these children something that will give them a chance to see life better, something that will bring them back some of the hopes that they've lost," the coach said, explaining that taekwondo gives them "something to hang on to."

"These kids have been through a lot, and dealing with them isn't always smooth and easy … I am really touched by how fast their psychology and their emotional state can change," he said, explaining that he finds the work extremely rewarding.

"It's a relationship based on love and respect, it's much bigger than a coach with his students. I'm very fortunate that they look up to me, on the other hand, I am learning a lot from them every day."

The WT and the THF's pioneering humanitarian projects were soon joined by the International Olympics Committee (IOC) and other international sports federations. In 2019, a trial version of the multi-sports event was held in association with wrestling at the Azraq camp, and the Hope and Dream Sports Festival was jointly organized by the WT and the WSBC this year.

Syrian refugees sheltering at the Azraq refugee camp hold a demonstration game of baseball5 at the Humanitarian Sports Center during the Hope and Dreams Sports Festival, Feb. 25. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

ASOIF President Francesco Ricci Bitti attended and welcomed the multi-sports coalition in February, calling it a "valuable initiative of two international federations teaming up to bring the physical and mental benefits of their sports to refugees and displaced people."

During the event, dozens of young refugees in Azraq, most of whom had already practiced taekwondo, demonstrated a game of baseball5, a five-inning street version of baseball and softball, which was included in the Youth Olympic Games program in Dakar in 2022, after two months of training was provided by the WBSC.

WBSC President Riccardo Fraccarri said sports education can offer coordination, agility, teamwork, and gender equality to young refugees living in isolated conditions at the camp. Baseball5, by its rules and definition, is a mixed-gender sport that requires at least two of each gender to be part of the five-member team playing.

"In a place like the Middle East, where the role of women is different from that of men, building teamwork, cooperating with each other can be empowering for women. It can give self-confidence to women, to be able to compete in the same team and on the same ground (as men)," he said.

Most importantly, the multi-sports humanitarian initiatives aim to create social cohesion among refugees and the host country's local communities.

Although the Jordanian government and its people have been supportive and welcoming of refugees, being the second largest host to Syrian refugees after Turkey, a recent survey showed rising tension stemming from pandemic-induced economic hardships and high inflation. Many think that "refugees get more help than Jordanians."

A majority of 81 percent of the survey's respondents said, "Jordanians have been affected more severely by the pandemic's economic repercussions than refugees," according to a report published in December 2021 by NAMA Strategic Intelligence Solutions.

During the Feb. 27 event, a team of Jordanian children living in urban areas also participated in the festival and played baseball5 against the Azraq refugee team.

"We want the kids to grow a vision, 'Is he a refugee?' No, he's just another kid. This is how sports can build bridges between communities and build social cohesion," Marco Ienna, the WBSC's chief operating officer said, adding that the organization, along with the WT and the THF, is determined to set a fixed, permanent sports education program for refugees in Jordan and abroad.

Dreams to Olympic Games

Taekwondo's humanitarian initiative not only espouses hopes and dreams in the young Syrian refugees. It leads to life-changing opportunities.

Wael Al-Farraj, 20, and Yahya Al Ghotany, 19, from the Azraq camp were nominated as Olympics scholarship beholders for the Paris Olympic Games in 2024. Funded by the IOC through the Olympic Solidarity program, the scholarship provides them with financial support for training.

The two athletes have come closest to realizing the earnest dreams of their friends at the camp, who unanimously name their life goals to become international taekwondo athletes, coaches or referees and finally make it to the Olympics.

"It changed my life, it changed my mind ... I have more dreams and I trust myself that I can do anything and become a champion. Taekwondo taught me the right way to get my target," said Al Ghotany.

Al-Farraj also said the sport gave him "mental and physical peace" and allowed him to meet many people from different countries.

Fifty-two refugee athletes around the world, including Al-Farraj and Al Ghotany, became Olympic scholarship holders from 12 countries living in 18 host countries, representing 12 sports. Nine of them are taekwondo players, the second-largest number among the 12 sports after Athletics (23).

If the two scholarship holders acclaim the qualification to join the IOC Refugee Olympic Team by early 2024, they will become the very first refugee Olympians from a refugee camp in the history of all sports. However, as remarkable as the goal is, they face disadvantages to leveling up at combat sports ― they have limited access to the outside world and experience in matches and international competitions.

"I have a plan but I need support to make it work," Al-Farraj said. "It's difficult to go outside of Jordan and participate in international championships. That is my biggest challenge," he said, adding that he wishes more than anything to compete against competitors from all around the world, to gain experience and grow as an athlete.

He was a former Olympics scholarship holder for the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, but could not make the final qualification.

However, thanks to the support of the WT, he became the first Azraq athlete to participate in an international tournament outside the country by competing in the Arab world in February 2022, the Asian Taekwondo Championships and the Chuncheon Korea Open International Taekwondo Championships under the flag of WT in June 2022.

Despite the obstacles, the two athletes plan to put it all into their training with coach Sabah, to continue their race to become Olympians and make their dreams come true.

A Syrian refugee taekwondo participant in the bleachers during the Hope and Dreams Taekwondo Championships at Prince Hamzah Hall during the Hope and Dreams Taekwondo Championships in Jordan, Feb. 27. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

It is unclear when the 12-year ongoing war in their homeland of Syria will come to an end. Although they miss their homeland and wish the war to end, 96 percent of the Syrian refugees surveyed by the UNHCR in October 2021 "do not see themselves returning in the next year." Until then, their camp lives in isolation are likely to continue.

Despite the difficult realities, Azraq's young refugee athletes continue to hone their kicks, train their bodies and minds every day and most importantly, find joy from it.

"I hope that one day I can help my students gain taekwondo professionalism and grant them the opportunity to travel and participate in taekwondo championships all around the world," coach Sabah said.

Almtlaq's dream, like that of many other trainees at the Azraq Academy, is to leave the camp one day, settle in Jordan and become a world-famous taekwondo professional to spread peace, power and the undeterred spirit of the sports that shaped him.

"I hope that the wars in Syria and all countries will disappear, and peace and tolerance will spread in the world," he said, explaining that the possibility of going back to his war-torn homeland is both unrealistic and undesirable.

To make those dreams come true, he said taekwondo is his greatest strength. "I cannot live without taekwondo in my life," he said.