The inspiring story of Parfait Hakizimana #Paralympics

Parfait Hakizimana – inspiring refugee poised to make history

Parfait Hakizimana has endured tragedy, brutal violence, and conflict. Now a refugee in Rwanda, he has found strength, hope, and courage through sports and his years of training as a professional taekwondo athlete are about to bear fruit. He is poised to take the world stage as a participant in the Tokyo 2020 Summer Paralympics where he hopes to win a medal and make his refugee community proud.

Hakizimana’s left arm is permanently debilitated from a severe gunshot wound he suffered as a child in 1996, as the violence of the country’s civil war came to his village. His mother died in the shooting that day. Hakizimana escaped Burundi 20 years later, fearing the same fate as his mother, becoming one of the first settlers at Mahama, now Rwanda’s largest refugee camp.

In 2017, it was home to 55,000 people of whom 51% were children. “You have to go a long way to walk and find water and feed your family,” Hakizimana says. “It’s not easy.” He is the only athlete on the team still living in a refugee camp. He resides there with his wife, Irene, and one-year-old daughter, Brink. “Together, with my taekwondo family, I can manage it,” he says.

Hakizimana started a taekwondo school at the camp and is credited with having trained more than 1,000 refugee children. The Refugee Paralympic Team represents more than 82 million people worldwide, who have been forced to flee war, persecution, and human rights abuses. Twelve million of them live with a disability.

Taekwondo Humanitarian Foundation (THF), which was created by World Taekwondo in 2016. The Foundation has supported Hakizimana and he is now a THF coach.

“World Taekwondo remains committed to empowering refugees through taekwondo, which is why we started the Taekwondo Humanitarian Foundation in the first place,” he said. “Many refugees around the world, including those based in refugee camps like Mr. Hakizimana, have benefited from its support,” World Taekwondo President Chungwon Choue said.

After the Games and the bright neon lights of Tokyo, Hakizimana will travel almost 12,000km to return to Mahama. He hopes to do so with a medal. “It will bring happiness not only to the children at the camp but also to all the refugees because this is our own achievement,” he says.

Televisions in on-camp health centers will play footage of Hakizimana’s contests, while the restricted access to the internet through the community library will mean his friends and fellow coaches can spread the news of his exploits to the students. Maybe they will catch a glimpse of his performance. He often dreams that one day he will see one of them follow in his footsteps. “Many of the children have sent me messages,” Hakizimana says. “Most of them said they pray for me to win.”

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