This is the second edition of the Festival, and is being held jointly in Jordan's Azraq Refugee Camp and the country's capital Amman.

The first day featured a taekwondo demonstration from young athletes based at the THF's Humanitarian Sports Center.

The programme at the Refugee Camp has now produced 69 black belt athletes, and World Taekwondo President Chungwon Choue, who also chairs the THF, presented certificates to some of the recent 27 young students who reached the sport's highest belt level.

The THF has sought to place emphasis on collaboration with other sports for this year's Hopes and Dreams Festival, with Memorandums of Understanding signed with several other Federations.

WBSC President Riccardo Fraccari and ASOIF President Francesco Ricci Bitti travelled to the Azraq Camp with Choue for the first day of the Festival.

Young athletes of the Humanitarian Sports Center also showcased a variety of baseball5 drills, including one which Choue, Fraccari and Ricci Bitti and other officials including from the Jordan Olympic Committee and Jordan Taekwondo Federation took part in.

The day's activities at the Camp concluded with a baseball5 demonstration game.

Baseball5 is a pitcher-free, mixed-gender discipline which requires only a rubber ball to play and is on the programme for the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games.

Choue thanked Italian officials Fraccari and Ricci Bitti for their attendance, and reflected on the work of the THF since its foundation in 2015.

"I still vividly remember in 2015, that was my first visit to Azraq Camp," the South Korean official said.

"At the time, the refugee camp was not as big as this one.

"In 2015, I was thinking about what Olympic sports can do to these young refugee children, so I was thinking how we can contribute to these innocent young children, giving them hope and dreams.

"World Taekwondo decided to found the Humanitarian Centre to work together with the young children, not only for taekwondo but through this programme to teach them the importance of Olympism and the importance of world peace, and moreover how to live as a good global citizen.

"Finally, we're reaching our activities and then we opened to all the other sports Federations to use these facilities to teach their sports to the kids.

"In 2019, we had a demonstration together with wrestling, and this time, we are doing it together with the World Baseball Softball Confederation, specifically baseball5 to the young children."

He concluded by echoing a message from Ricci Bitti, who heads up the ASOIF umbrella body.

"I like to use the words of Francesco," Choue commented.

"He was saying life is good when you are happy, but much better the others are happy because of you.

"We would like to greater support refugee children not only in this Azraq Camp but also in many other camps like we are doing on the Turkey and Syria border."

More than 300 refugee athletes are expected to compete at the Hope and Dreams Sports Festival.

The Festival is due to run until Monday (February 27), and includes the El Hassan Cup competition and the Hope and Dreams Refugee Taekwondo Championships.