Opening Ceremony Held in Bishkek for 2025 WT-KCF Kyrgyzstan Cares Program
By Seok-jae Kang
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan: An opening ceremony was held for the 2025 Kyrgyzstan WT-KCF Cares Program in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on September 20.
The ceremony, which also celebrated the opening of the 2nd Nomad GCS International Open Taekwondo Championship, took place at the Alga Sports Complex, drawing about 600 people.
Among the VIPs at the ceremony were Dr. Chungwon Choue, president of World Taekwondo and GCS International; Mr. Magableh Maher, a WT Council member and president of GCS Australia; Mr. Namdev Shirgaonker, president of Taekwondo India and CCS India; Mr. Saddad Al Amri, a WT Council member and former president of the Saudi Arabian Taekwondo Federation; Mr. Hazem Naimat, vice president of the Jordan Taekwondo Federation.
Also on hand were Mr. Umbetaly Toktoralievitch Kydyraliev, president of the Kyrgyz National Olympic Committee; Korean Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan Kwang-jae Kim; and Mr. Alexey Park, president of the Taekwondo Association of the Kyrgyz Republic and GCS Kyrgyzstan.
About 30 Korean GCS members also attended the opening ceremony. Among them were Mr. Lee Hyeong-taek, a board member of GCS International; Prof. Suh Joo-hwan, president of GCS Korea; Mr. Lee Won-jong, secretary general of GCS Korea; Mr. Seok-jae Kang, vice president of GCS International; Mr. Duck-hwa Hong, new secretary general of GCS International; and a five-member ICKC (International Center for Korean Culture) delegation headed by ICKC advisor Eui-kun Park.
WT President Choue expressed his appreciation to the KCF for its financial support for the 2025 Kyrgyzstan WT Cares Program.
During the opening ceremony, which started at 4 p.m., there was a taekwondo demonstration by about 70 taekwondo students from two orphanages in Bishkek: SOS Children’s Village and Aidanek Center. About 100 orphans of the two orphanages, recipients of the 2025 Kyrgyzstan WT Cares Program, are financially supported by the Korea Culture Foundation (KCF).
Hours before the opening ceremony, about 50 GCS and WT members visited the Aidanek Center to deliver an electronic organ and two TV sets to the center director, Mrs. Elmira Jumaeva. A total of 35 taekwondo students of the center performed a taekwondo demonstration for the visitors to draw a big applause.
Kyrgyzstan received funds from the Asia Development Foundation (ADF) for its WT-Cares Program for three years from 2022 to 2024, but starting this year the financial support foundation changed from the ADF to the KCF. The two Korean foundations are head by Jun-il Kim.
With the financial support from the KCF, WT is carrying out its Cares programs in Kyrgyzstan and Bhutan this year, while WT is supporting with its own funds six other countries: Nepal, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Pakistan and two African countries: Kenya and Burundi.
