Humanitarian Organization
Our Mission:
Hwa Rang Do – A Legacy of Loyalty
Relentlessly Seeking Truth
Empowering Lives
Serving Humanity
While martial arts organizations today focus increasingly on combat sports and commercial endeavors, the WHRDA has chosen to move in a different direction.
“Our desire to expand our humanitarian work around the globe led to the change,” said Grandmaster Taejoon Lee, President of the World Hwa Rang Do Association. Hwa Rang Do differentiates itself from other martial arts by developing leaders with a strong sense of social justice. “We want our members to live in a way that their actions meet their intentions. Too many people live a life with good intentions, but don’t have the discipline to take action to see things through,” said Grandmaster Lee.
Hwa Rang Do’s charitable efforts to date include fundraising for organizations including Saint Jude Children’s Hospital, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and the Juvenile Diabetes Association, plus an international humanitarian trip. In August of 2009, a team from Hwa Rang Do’s Italian Branch went to Angola to work with the children of Lixeira, a city built entirely on top of a garbage dump. The poorest of the poor in the world live there. This operation marked the beginning of a broader mission by the WHRDA to bring the gift of self-empowerment to those with the greatest needs – both domestically and globally.
The WHRDA has set in motion a plan, which will
- develop its internal organization and infrastructure
- engage in community-based & humanitarian efforts and
- develop a professional instructor program to help & support committed individuals have successful careers in the martial arts