Syrian family builds hope through taekwondo at Azraq refugee camp

• Published date: 02 March 2023
• Publication title: The Korea Times

AZRAQ, Jordan ? Taekwondo runs in the six-member Al-Ayoub family from Syria and offers a chance for a better life within and outside the refugee camp where they have lived since 2016.

The family fled from a rural village in their homeland Syria to neighboring Jordan at the outbreak of the civil war. While taking shelter at the Azraq refugee camp, established and managed by the Jordanian government and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees 100 kilometers east of the capital Amman, the family found the traditional Korean martial art to be an "outlet in which we feel comfortable" Muhammad Al-Ayoub, 45, told The Korea Times in Arabic via a written interview, Tuesday.

The first family member to learn taekwondo was the eldest daughter, Shaima, who is now 18 years old and hopes to study medicine. Since she started training at the camp's academy in 2016, the family witnessed how she improved her physical and psychological well-being and learned patience, discipline and positivity through training.

"It helped her to refine her personality. It adjusted her mood," her father said, noting that the sport also helped her to make friends. His 16-year-old son, Othman, also said taekwondo fostered his older sister's physical and psychological well-being and taught her sportsmanship.

It took little time for taekwondo to become a family custom for the Al-Ayoub household, which has always loved inner and outer peace, in the younger Al-Ayoub's words. "We are a sports family par excellence," he said, explaining that they all hold black belts now.

His younger brother, Rema, is an ambitious 12-year-old with a second-dan black belt in taekwondo, who is in the process of completing his studies. Rema aims to become a taekwondo Olympian and an international coach and referee one day. His younger sister Doaa, 8, is a child prodigy in taekwondo who became the youngest refugee taekwondo practitioner to earn her first-dan black belt at the age of six in 2021. She acquired her second dan last month. The father works at the camp's taekwondo academy as an assistant to coach Asif Sabah who trains young Syrian taekwondo athletes and leads the sports grassroots movement, which he finds fulfilling and meaningful.

"I feel like a child sharing their dreams, providing them with psychological support and accepting their curiosity … The world of children...