© WTU

GCS International held virtual meetings with its national chapters on June 22, 2021, drawing a total of 84 representatives from 57 countries.

Dr. Chungwon Choue, president of GCS International, hosted a virtual meeting with 33 leaders from 26 GCS national chapters in the Pan American region in the morning, and another online meeting with 51 leaders from 31 national chapters in Asia, Africa, Europe and Oceania in the afternoon.

The 57 participating countries were as follows: 26 Pan American countries - Argentina, Aruba, Barbados, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Curacao, the Commonwealth of Dominica, Ecuador, Grand Cayman Islands, Guadalupe, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Jamaica, Peru, Puerto Rico, Trinidad & Tobago, Uruguay, USA, and Venezuela; six European countries - Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Monaco, Scotland and France; 22 Asian countries - Bhutan, Cambodia, China, East Timor, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, UAE, and Syria; two African countries - Cameroon and Niger; and one Oceania country of Australia.

The GCS national chapters, which attended the virtual meeting for the first time were Barbados, British Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of Dominica, Guadalupe, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Peru, and Uruguay from Pan America. The new GCS national chapters from Asia were East Timor, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mongolia, Saudi Arabia, and UAE. France attended the GCS virtual meeting for the first time.

Each virtual meeting, which was moderated by Dr. Selma Li, president of GCS Portland and a GCS board member, lasted 1 hour and 40 minutes.

GCS Denmark (Ms. Lisa Lents), GCS India (Mr. Namdev Shirgaonkar and Master Roy Pradipta Kumar Roy), GCS Hong Kong (Mr. Andy Kwan) and GCS Guangdong (Mr. Zhong Min Guo) made their respective GCS country reports during the virtual meeting.

Dr. Choue said the next GCS virtual meeting will be held in early October this year, hoping more GCS member countries would attend the next meeting.

Dr. Chungson Choue said in his opening remarks, “Despite the global pandemic, I believe that the GCS Movement has been greatly promoted, mainly because of your active participation in GCS activities.”

He continued to say, “Since the pandemic began in early 2020, we have had many virtual meetings with all GCS chapter leaders. The number of GCS national chapters has almost doubled over the years and I expect it to reach 100 chapters by the end of this year. The global membership of GCS International was 44 chapters in 2019. At the end of 2020, we had 58 chapters and as of today, we have 75 chapters. We target to have at least 100 chapters this year.”

“My special appreciation goes to Mr. Andy Kwan, president of GCS Hong Kong, as he helped inaugurate GCS clubs in China, such as Guangdong. We have good numbers in Pan America and Asia but I think we should create more GCS clubs in Europe and Africa. I ask for your continued support for the membership expansion of GCS.

“Several GCS chapters, including Portland, Denmark, Hong Kong and Guangdong, are hosting virtual GCS taekwondo events, with part of the proceeds going to GCS International for supporting World Taekwondo Cares and refugee students.

“In this regard, I wish to thank Dr. Selma Li, president of GCS Portland, for initiating such fund-raising activities and your active leadership in Pan Am.

Dr. Choue said, “GCS has three major focuses: goodwill, cooperation and service-contribution. We are striving to achieve the three by promoting a healthy society, better living, preservation of the nature, restoration of human dignity, and promotion of world peace.

“Two days ago on June 20, GCS International hosted the 2021 DMZ Peace Festival together with the national daily, Kookmin Ilbo in Munsan, north of Seoul and near to the Demilitarized Zone. Even though a maximum of 100 people were allowed to join the annual event, the audiences were treated to exciting performances of the WT Demonstration Team and the GCS Global Peace Corps Taekwondo Heroes Team. I hope the next year’s DMZ Peace Festival will attract more than 10,000 people, as we saw at the 2019 edition in Paju,” he said.

“This year marks the 40th anniversary of the U.N. International Day of Peace. To commemorate the day, GCS International will host the World Taekwondo Peace Festival, together with World Taekwondo in Seoul, Korea on September 30. We had planned to organize a major event, but given the COVID 19 situation, only a limited number of guests will be invited, including foreign envoys in Korea, whose countries have won at least one medal in the taekwondo competitions at the Olympic Games,” Dr. Choue said. “The World Taekwondo Demonstration Team will also perform at the festival, followed by a concert.”

He said, “GCS International also plans to organize a small peace concert to honor the GCS Movement founder, Dr. Young Seek Choue, on November 22, 2021 at Sambongni, Namyangju City, near Seoul. As you may know, this year is the centenary of my late father’s birth. If the COVID-19 situation becomes better, we are arranging for more invitations to the peace concert.”

“As part of efforts to further broaden our GCS activities, we plan to offer a free online Korean language program for our GCS members worldwide starting this year, in partnership with King Sejong Institute Foundation. Free online Korean language courses for beginner and intermediate levels are currently offered in 9 different languages: English, Chinese, Spanish, Indonesian, Russian, Vietnamese, Japanese, Portuguese, and Thai. French and Arabic courses are scheduled to start later this year. We may invite some of the best students from this course to Korea next year as a form of reward for their dedication to improve themselves,” he said. “When taekwondo and the Korean language are combined, I think our GCS Movement will be further promoted worldwide.”

In his opening remarks, he also said that “I also wish to share some important updates with you related to World Taekwondo. GCS International had planned to organize a GCS leaders meeting in Wuxi, China in mid-October this year on the occasion of the 2021 World Taekwondo Championships. It would have been great to finally meet every one of you and thank you personally for your active contributions during the World Championships. Unfortunately, we received a request from the mayor of the Wuxi government asking for postponement of the World Championships to next year due to the ongoing pandemic. Therefore, we cannot hold the GCS Meeting in Wuxi this year. We will inform you when we have confirmation of the new dates.”

“On a positive side, I am proud to inform you that the IOC has selected three Taekwondo athletes for the Refugee Olympic Team for the Tokyo Olympic Games. With the inclusion, we have 130 athletes from 61 countries and the Refugee Olympic Team. Taekwondo is the third-most represented sport. Let’s hope that taekwondo will be the first Olympic sport with a refugee athlete standing on the victory podium.

“As you know, para taekwondo will also make its debut at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo. We have 72 athletes from 37 countries for this historic Games. World Taekwondo is also hopeful to have one refugee athlete for the Refugee Paralympic Team.

“Another wonderful news is that our WT Demonstration Team was invited to America’s Got Talent and received the golden buzzer on June 16. Their performance was so incredible that the video has almost 9 million views on YouTube in just 5 days. Incredible!

Dr. Choue concluded his remarks by saying, “With this positive energy, I wish to thank everyone for your participation in this virtual meeting.”

밝은사회클럽 국제본부(GCS International, 총재 조정원)는 지난 6월 22일 총 57개국 84명이 참가한 가운데 두 차례 화상 회의를 성공적으로 개최했다.

조정원 GCS국제본부 총재가 주재한 오전 화상 회의에는 미주지역 총 26개국 33명의 GCS국가본부 지도자들이 그리고 오후에 열린 화상 회의에는 아시아, 아프리카, 유럽 그리고 오세아니아 지역 총 31개국에서 51명의 지도자들이 참가했다.

GCS화상 회의에 처음 참가한 국가로는 미주 지역에서 바베이도스, 영국 버진 아일랜드, 도미니카 연방, 과달루페, 자메이카, 니카라과, 페루, 우루과이, 그리고 아시아 지역에서 동티모르, 요르단, 키르기스스탄, 라오스, 몽골, 사우디아라비아, 아랍에미리트연합, 그리고 프랑스이다.

GCS미국포틀랜드 지역본부 총재이자 GCS 국제본부 이사인 셀마 리 사회로 진행된 각 화상 회의는 약 1시간 40분 진행되었다.

GCS덴마크, GCS인도, GCS홍콩 그리고 GCS중국광동 대표들이 각 국의 GCS 활동보고 시간을 가졌다.
조정원 GCS국제본부 총재는 다음 GCS 화상 회의는 오는 10월 초에 정하고 더 많은 회원국이 참가하기를 희망했다.

조 총재는 화상 회의 인사말에서 “전 세계적인 코로나의 힘든 상황에도 우리 GCS운동은 회원 여러분들의 적극적인 참여로 더욱 활발했다. 화상 회의가 자주 열렸으며 GCS 회원 국가 수도 최근 몇 년간 두 배로 늘어 올 연말까지 100개국 도달이 목표”라고 말했다.

GCS회원 국가 수가 2019년 말 44개에서 2020년 말 58개, 그리고 현재 75개로 급증했다.
조 총재는 “GCS 회원국 중 미국 포틀랜드, 덴마크, 홍콩, 중국 광동 등이 GCS 태권도 화상 이벤트를 개최하여 수익금 일부를 GCS국제본부로 전달해서 이 모금액이 향후 세계태권도연맹 케어스(Cares) 학생들과 난민들 지원에 사용될 것”이라고 말했다.

“이러한 좋은 일을 위한 모금 활동에 처음부터 적극적으로 참여하고 또한 다른 GCS회원국을 독려하고 있는 GCS미국 포틀랜드 셀마 리 총재에게 감사를 표한다”고 조 총재는 말했다.

인사말에서 조 총재는 6월 22일 경기도 파주 문산행복센터에서 GCS국제본부와 국민일보가 공동으로 개최한 ‘2021DMZ평화대축제’ 행사 소개 및 오는 9월 30일 서울 서소문성지 역사박물관에서 세계태권도연맹과 공동으로 개최될 ‘”세계태권도평화축제”에 대해 설명했다.

© WTU

© WTU

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