Taekwondo for everyone 2: Announcement

Taekwondo for everyone 2 one of Babilon Travel’s new projects. It is a sequence of the project Taekwondo for everyone 1. This project is funded by the European Union and is part of the Erasmus+ programme. Coordinating and host organization is Taekwondo klub Maksimir, while partners are Istituto dei Sordi di Torino from Italy, Asociatia Babilon Travel from Romania and WalkTogether from Bulgaria.

Reason for doing this project is, first of all, the inclusion of people with disabilities into society and giving them the opportunity to learn the tools and set of skills that will help develop both their physical and social skills. They will do all of that in a safe, supporting and friendly, but new, fun and exciting international environment.

Here you can find project results of the first one

The biggest target group of the project Taekwondo for everyone 2 are young people with special needs and fewer opportunities that may be faced with issues such as low self esteem, bad mental or psychical health, or the feelings of being left out or even rejected by their peers. Furthermore, lately young people are spending more and more time on the Internet and their devices, closed in their rooms and not being an active part of the society, and the situation is even worse with more severe mental consequences for the disabled youth or people with special needs. This creates anti-social youth dependent on their laptops and smartphones, with lack of self-confidence, living the unhealthy lifestyle with increased stress. Connected to this topic according to the World Health Organization (WHO), depression is the most common illness worldwide. They estimate that 350 million people are affected by depression, globally. 

With this project we want to direct and support youth to move and exercise for a better alternative option rather than overuse of the internet in their free time and we want to help youth get rid of social isolation which only makes depression worse.

Project Taekwondo for everyone 2 objectives are to:

– Empower participants with disabilities and/or fewer opportunities and help them to see themselves as powerful and important members of community;

– Raise awareness among our target audience about the importance of integration of people with special needs into society;

– Improve the level of key competences and skills of participants; ability to pursue and persist in different kinds of learning, to identify available opportunities for their personal growth and well-being and to be able to optimally use given opportunities for their own development;

– Raise awareness about taekwondo as the exercise/martial arts training that improves balance, flexibility, stamina, strength and posture, muscle tone and appearance not only for healthy people, but also for people with disabilities;

– Encourage the participants to interact with other people and to adapt to the changing situation or to co-exist and collaborate with other team members;

– Enhance their cultural awareness and expression, to work effectively in multi-national team, to respect and be aware of cultural differences and work effectively with people from a range of social and cultural backgrounds;

-Enhance their self-esteem by heightening their physical and mental powers, and build confidence by encouraging them to succeed and to take control of their life.

We plan the youth exchange to be organized in April, 2021, but this can be changed, depending on the evolution of the pandemic.