ADF receives ‘Taekwondo Day’ commendation from Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism

ADF receives ‘Taekwondo Day’ commendation from Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism

By Seok-Jae Kang
Vice President of the Asian Journalists Association 

SEOUL: The Asia Development Foundation (ADF) has received a commendation from the Korean minister of culture, sports and tourism on 2021 Taekwondo Day.

The ministerial citation was given to the ADF in recognition of the federation’s years of financial support to World Taekwondo to help empower the powerless in developing countries in Asia, thus helping enhance the image of taekwondo abroad.

The Korean government has commemorated the September 4 Taekwondo Day since 2008.

On September 4, 1994, the International Olympic Committee decided to include taekwondo as an official sport at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. Because of the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 Taekwondo Day ceremony did not take place on September 4, but a commemorative video was shown to the public.

The commemorative video featured congratulatory speeches by Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister Hwang Hee, World Taekwondo President Dr. Chungwon Choue, Kukkiwon President Lee Dong-sup, Taekwondo Promotion Foundation Chairman Oh Eung-hwan, and Mr. Oh Tae-woong, chairman of the Korea Taekwondo Association for the Disabled.

The speeches were followed by the introduction of the recipients of the ministerial citations.

Among the recipients were the late Kim Jin-young, a former Uzbekistan national taekwondo team head coach in recognition of his efforts to help Uzbekistan take a gold medal for the first time in taekwondo at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, and the Italy Taekwondo Federation, headed by Mr. Angelo Cito, recognizing the federation’s efforts to foster closer relations with the Vatican and taekwondo demonstrations in front of the Pope.

On behalf of the sports minister Hwang, WT President Choue delivered the ministerial citation to ADF Chairman Kim Joon-il at the WT headquarters in downtown Seoul, Korea at 2:30 p.m. on September 10.

In 2019, the ADF signed a memorandum of understanding on the financial support for the WT Taekwondo Cares Program with World Taekwondo. Under the MOU, the ADF delivered 100 million won (about 90,000 U.S. dollars) in cash to WT for the 2019 WT Cares Program, followed by a cash donation of $150,000 in 2020 and $200,000 in 2021.

The ADF donation has been used to support one-year free taekwondo education for orphans, young prisoners, female household victims, alcohol and drug addicts, etc. in such countries as Nepal, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Bhutan.

WT and ADF plan to expand the Cares projects to Mongol, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Jordan and other countries this year, pending the COVID-19 situation.