'The best of all worlds': How an Afghan refugee and a trip to Scotland helped this 13yo represent Australia

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Akon Baak is the daughter of a South Sudanese refugee, being coached by an Afghan refugee in a Korean sport that she first tried in Scotland — and now this 13-year-old is going to represent Australia in taekwondo.

That tale started several years ago in Scotland, when Akon and stumbled into a taekwondo class in Glasgow with her brother and sister.Akon's mother, Melanie Baak, said the sport became a saving grace for her three children as she undertook a four-month fellowship at the University of Glasgow."I've got these beautiful photos of her after her first class with a white belt and new gear on and I remember the excitement that you could feel from her.

The family didn't expect the interest in the Korean martial art to continue on return to Adelaide, but it did. On return home, they found an academy run by Mohammad Reza Hassani – an Afghan refugee, who learnt the Korean martial art while exiled in Iran as a boy."In Australia, everybody has rights," he said.

"One of the beautiful things about Australia is this right; to make sure everybody can practise what they want, whatever their goal is.Mohammad Reza Hassani said his taekwondo academy was the most multi-cultural in South Australia.He has been training her three times a week at the Enfield Community Centre in Adelaide's north in preparation for her first international competition and her ultimate goal."She is a good listener.

"She's the great-grandchild of former refugees from Russia and Poland on my side, and migrants from the UK, and the child of a South Sudanese refugee, and then the student of an Afghan refugee — I think it's the best of all worlds," she said.

 

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