The Badminton World Federation (BWF) has joined forces with the Taekwondo Humanitarian Foundation (THF) and World Taekwondo (WT) to sign a landmark Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to promote humanitarian, peace and development-supporting activities.

BWF President Poul-Erik Høyer met with THF Chairman and WT President Dr. Chungwon Choue and THF Executive Director Roger Piarulli to sign the collaboration agreement on 14 January in Lausanne.

Following the signing, President Høyer said: “The BWF is excited to partner with the Taekwondo Humanitarian Foundation as well as World Taekwondo to promote and support humanitarian and social development initiatives around the world, in particular, the sports for peace project in Jordan.

“Badminton is a sport for all and as such we see great opportunity in uniting together with our friends at World Taekwondo to provide avenues of sport and physical activity for the children and youth at the Azraq Refugee Camp.

“We hope this partnership will extend to many other peace and development initiatives globally in the coming years.”

Since Dr. Choue addressed all international sports federations attending the ASOIF General Assembly that took place in Bangkok in May last year with an open invitation to join hands with World Taekwondo and THF in their humanitarian activities, several institutional partnerships like the one with the BWF were identified with the intent to develop close cooperation in promoting sports as a vehicle towards peace and social development.

Dr. Choue said after the signing: “At World Taekwondo our motto is ‘peace is more precious than triumph’, and this landmark agreement further highlights our commitment to humanitarian, peace and development-supporting activities around the world.

“Taekwondo, and sport in general, is such an important vehicle for world peace and we are all very excited to work closely with the BWF to improve the lives of those who need it most.”

THF and WT have been eager in uniting forces with federations such as BWF to bring in additional sports and fun activities to their existing Azraq Taekwondo Academy in place in at the Azraq Refugee Camp in Jordan.

With the recent installation of artificial turf at the Academy, there is now a football-sized playground for badminton to develop fun activities for the many children and youth visiting the Academy daily.

Looking at pictures from the Academy set-up and the camp itself, President Høyer said it made perfect sense to join hands with other sports federations sharing the same vision and willingness to get involved in the field, as team efforts were a sure way to maximise the impact of such initiatives.

Dr. Choue added that his long-term vision is to launch with other International Federations and the IOC the Olympic Peace Corps where a great variety of sports could bring hope to people in vulnerable situations around the world.

Feature Image: WT President Dr. Chungwon Choue (right), BWF President Poul-Erik Høyer (middle) and THF Executive Director Roger Piarulli (left) poses after signing the MoU