On the second day of the 10th day of the Tokyo Paralympics, a player who lost his family and arm functions in the civil war and is becoming a refugee while communicating the joy of sports to people in similar circumstances to the Taekwondo men's 61 kg class I participated.
Taekwondo club in refugee camp in Rwanda
Parfait Hakizimana, a 33-year-old from Burundi in central Africa, died in a civil war when her mother was shot dead, and her left arm was shot and injured.
After that, his father died in a car accident, and Hakijimana lost his parents, but thanks to Taekwondo, who started at the age of 16, he was able to stay healthy.
However, in the wake of intensifying turmoil in his home country, he fled to a refugee camp in neighboring Rwanda in 2015 and set up a club to teach refugees like him the joy of taekwondo.
So far, while teaching more than 1000 refugees including children, he has continued to practice and was selected for the first time as a member of the refugee team participating in the Tokyo Paralympics.
In the first round of the men's 61 kg class held at Makuhari Messe in Chiba City on the 2nd, Hakijimana played against a Brazilian player, and in the first and second rounds he could not decide an effective kick, 0 to 20. It was a big lead.
Even so, in the final third round, he scored 4 points, such as deciding a strong kick at the beginning of the game, and although he lost 4 to 27, he continued to attack until the end.
Hakijimana said on the homepage of UNHCR = United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, "Taekwondo is my life itself. It teaches me to forget the difficulties I have had, to unite, to have courage, and to respect others. I want to support refugees like me through taekwondo so that they will not lose hope. "
At the refugee camp, many students are waiting for the coach's return on the Paralympic stage.