Taekwondo-inspired festival lives up to its name for Syrian refugees

AMMAN, Jordan — A taekwondo-inspired festival has flourished to spread a greater message of hopes and dreams for young Syrian refugees, passing its third anniversary as a humanitarian initiative led by World Taekwondo (WT) President Choue Chung-won.

The 2025 edition of the Hope and Dreams Sports Festival was the largest to date after it originated from a namesake taekwondo competition in 2022 and evolved into a multi-sports festival afterward.

Taekwondo Humanitarian Foundation (THF), founded and chaired by Choue, has organized the festival jointly with WT to empower refugees through sports, starting with taekwondo and baseball5 in 2023 and then adding basketball and badminton in 2024.

This year, it featured record-breaking six sports by including handball and weightlifting, as it ran from April 30 to May 3 for Syrian children and youth who are sheltered at the Azraq and Za’atari refugee camps in Jordan.

The festival took place at the two camps and in central Amman.

For more athletes to enjoy and practice their favorite sport, larger areas of land at the outdoor training ground of the Azraq refugee camp were covered with artificial turf.

The main gym at the Za’atari refugee camp was also entirely upgraded with artificial turf.

The festival culminated with Sports Day, a two-day competition in central Amman that drew roughly over 1,000 athletes as compared to estimated 400 in 2023 and 600 in 2024, according to organizers.

FISU joins forces for wider learning opportunities

“We started from a simple dream to where we are now,” Choue said in his welcoming speech at the Azraq refugee camp, April 30.

He referred to the foundation’s endeavor to bring more sports to Syrian refugees who fled atrocities of their country’s civil war in 2011 and had little access to sports as hobbies.

Choue went onto to highlight THF’s 10th founding anniversary in 2026, saying, “Next year, we will celebrate 10 years of this dream, which is now a reality, of giving hope and dreams through sports.”

He added, “We are not only bringing sports to the camps but also building life values through participation in sports.”

The festival was attended by multiple distinguished guests, demonstrating a vast collaborative network that WT and THF built together with IOC-governed sports bodies, the United Nations and other relevant organizations.

The guests included Jordanian Prince Rashid bin El Hassan, who is also president of Jordan Taekwondo Federation (JTF), as well as World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) President Riccardo Fraccari, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) representatives Claude Marshall and Maria Stavropoulou, International University Sports Federation (FISU) President Leonz Eder and Korean Ambassador to Jordan Kim Pil-woo.

In a follow-up address after Choue at the April 30 welcoming ceremony, Fraccari said he was pleased to witness “beautiful atmosphere generated by this annual festival.”

“The vibe has been incredible and I was also pleased to see that the baseball5 team has grown not only in terms of participation, but also in terms of skills,” he said. “I look forward to seeing an even bigger impact in the coming years.”

Marshall said, “I am totally impressed by these wonderful young people around me.”

“Living in not what you would call the ideal conditions and to be a refugee young person is not ideal. But they make the most of it. I hope for you a wonderful future,” he commented.

The FISU president attended the festival, as the federation newly partnered up with THF to offer greater learning opportunities for the war-ravaged refugee students in humanitarian, social inclusion, peace and development-support activities.

“It is an obligation for FISU to contribute in the future to this development because the children are the future of all of us, and we have to do everything we can to make their lives easier,” Eder said.

Athletes aim for higher goals

The taekwondo athletes at both the Azraq and Za’atari refugee camps were appreciative toward WT, THF and other contributing stakeholders, especially with regard to achievements made by their peers on the international stage.

From the Azraq refugee camp was Yahya Al Ghotany, who became the first Syrian refugee from Jordan to compete in the Olympics in Paris last year.

Then 20 years old, he was one of 36 athletes from 11 countries competing in 12 sports for the IOC Refugee Olympic Team.

“The outstanding achievement from our heroic peer drove me to focus on more on disciplines and responsibilities as a taekwondo athlete,” Abd Almajeed Al Bakr, 19, said.

“The achievement also drove me to change my mindset in a more positive way to reach for higher goals.”

On the Za’atari refugee camp, athletes garnered gold, silver and bronze medals they competed in several domestic competitions in Jordan.

They even competed on the international stage, including Ilham Al-Sheikh who took the gold in the 2025 Fujairah Open in the United Arab Emirates in February.

“This great achievement was not just a victory. It was a beacon of hope that illuminates the path for our athletes, encouraging them to work harder to achieve their dreams,” an emcee from the camp said in a greeting event for the distinguished guests, April 30.

Majed Yasser Al-Alou, 14, said the taekwondo training school was “not just a place to train” but also “my window into the future.”

“At the beginning of my journey, I didn’t have clear dreams or a vision for the future, but taekwondo gave me hope and determination,” he said. “I now appreciate every moment of learning and a deep sense of desire to help others.”

Concerning other sports, Ahmad Hadroos, a 17-year-old baseball5 player from the Azraq refugee camp, said he plays much better than after he first learned the sport.

“It’s amazing to see the big and huge progress that I have made, and hopefully I will become the best player in the world,” he said.

A Badminton World Federation (BWF) development manager, Jaffer Ebrahim highlighted that the sport began with 10 athletes but the number has since exceeded 80.

“It is not only about playing but also equipping the children with the life skills,” he said, referring to social interaction among the learners as they practice together three times a week and also join competitions.