AKIPRESS.COM - World Taekwondo (WT) and the Asia Development Foundation (ADF) have partnered to launch the WT-ADF Cares Programme in Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, and Timor-Leste for a one-year period, insidethegames.biz reported.

The initiative is designed to provide orphans, prisoners, and street children in developing countries with taekwondo training and Korean language lessons.

Under the theme, "Bright Future with Taekwondo", the 2022-2023 Mongolia WT-ADF Cares Programme began with a budget of $30,000 for approximately 200 inmates in Ulaanbaatar.

The programme in Kyrgyzstan adopted the theme "Dream through Taekwondo" and is set to help 75 orphans in Bishkek and 72 in Cholpon Ata with a $30,000 budget to give them free taekwondo education.

The final project is run in cooperation with the Timor-Leste Taekwondo Federation and is hoped to help around 60 orphans and 40 domestic abuse victims in Dili City with a $33,000 budget.

"The ongoing 2022-2023 WT-ADF Cares projects in Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan and Timor-Leste are meaningful as the students receive taekwondo education. World Taekwondo has carried out its Cares Programme since 2016 with the aim of "providing taekwondo to those in need and to empower the powerless in developing countries," the WT representatives said.

In addition to the three newly added countries, WT-ADF Cares projects are also underway in Nepal, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan while plans are in place to expand into Afghanistan.