World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) President Chungwon Choue said as much at the International Sport Cooperation Conference in Seoul on Monday (October 26), an event hosted by the WTF in conjunction with the International Sport Cooperation Centre of Korea (ISC).

Aimed at fulfilling the WTF’s social responsibility under Olympic Agenda 2020 by discharging teams of instructors to teach taekwondo to young people in refugee camps around the world, the newly-launched THF is set to be firmly established next year on the back of pilot projects in Jordan and Nepal.

Although the formation of the THF was formally announced by Choue last month at United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York, his declaration in South Korea’s capital that it is "Good to Go" certainly symbolises another step forward for the fledgling initiative.

There were plaudits aplenty for the WTF from the delegates gathered at the Plaza Hotel, but they weren't focused solely on the THF.

Dirk Hebecker, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Korea representative, claimed the international governing body's partnership with the ISC presented a "very fruitful new brotherhood of spreading hope to refugees" and spoke of how he was "deeply inspired" by the decision to hold this year’s International Sport Cooperation Conference under the theme of "Sport for a Better World".

Strong praise indeed from a member of a body that has sprung to prominence in recent months, such is the scale of the refugee crisis.

As well as estimating that the number of refugees and displaced persons combined together would equate to the world’s 24th largest country, the UNHCR also notes that one in every 122 people is either a refugee, internally displaced or seeking asylum.

Given these sort of statistics, it’s little wonder that Choue says in the official THF brochure that "it is time to act".

But what is it about taekwondo that lends itself to being able to assist the global community with the growing refugee crisis?

In delivering his keynote speech at the International Sport Cooperation Conference, Choue addressed the matter.

"Many refugees and displaced persons have little or nothing to do all day," he said.

"We can give them something: taekwondo.

"As a sport, taekwondo will improve the quality of their physical and mental lives.

"As an art, it will nourish their spirits.

"And once given, taekwondo is a gift that can never be taken away.

"It can be practiced anywhere, anytime, by anyone.

"Our teams will not only teach taekwondo.

"They will also teach Olympism, global citizenship, world peace and language skills."

The sport’s deployability is something that hasn’t been lost on the UNHCR with Hebecker stating that taekwondo could form the basis of a new campaign for the agency.

Having yet to establish a follow-up to the internet-based "ninemillion.org" campaign - aimed at helping refugees and displaced children around the world - a collaboration with the WTF would seem like the ideal fit to fill the void.

It mustn't be forgotten either that the WTF has pedigree on the sports humanitarian intervention front.

As referred to by Choue in his keynote speech, the World Taekwondo Peace Corps has sent instructors to teach taekwondo and Olympic values to more than 100 developing nations since its establishment in 2009.

"The educational value of taekwondo is also becoming well known," he added.

"A number of countries have adopted taekwondo as either compulsory or optional subjects in elementary schools.

"This is mainly due to the fact that taekwondo teaches respect and self-discipline."

Taekwondo has also been contributing to gender equality with the WTF being the first International Federation to allow female athletes to wear a hijab in competitions, encouraging Muslim women to participate in sport without barriers.

Furthermore, the number of men and women participating in Olympic taekwondo competitions is exactly equal for both athletes and referees.

In light of this, UN Women recently showed interest in working with the WTF in the promotion of gender equality and helping young women to build leadership skills through taekwondo.

With the WTF currently encompassing 206 national member federations, which oversee around 70 million practitioners, Choue claimed "this means at every second of every day, someone, somewhere in the world, is practicing taekwondo".

"Taekwondo’s huge global participant population grants the WTF enormous geographical reach," he said.

"It also grants the WTF reach across all the barriers we humans place in each others’ way; the barrier of race, the barrier of religion, the barrier of culture, the barrier of gender, and the barrier of language.

"Taekwondo smashes these barriers!"

Choue sees the establishment of the THF as the next step in the progression of the WTF, which he says is "wasting no time". 

WTF affiliates from all around the world are said to have already made substantial donations, while an official based in Saudi Arabia has carried out a reconnaissance at a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan.

Once the lessons of the Jordanian and Nepalese pilot programmes have been learned, the WTF intends to upgrade the THF’s capacity, expand its horizons and go into full operational mode in 2016.

The THF is "Good to Go". It’s now a case of waiting for the results before it can be determined whether or not it is here to stay.