SENSEI Jeffrey Wong says that his academy International Karate Organisation(IKO)-Guyana is making good progress working with President Irfaan Ali’s Men on Mission initiative to assist youths from various walks of life to be empowered and learn life lessons.
Sensei Wong who has been involved in the discipline of Karate for more
than 50 years says the many youths drawn from Tiger Bay, Albouystown, Sophia, East Ruimvelt and other areas are learning more than karate but discipline that will be vital in their lives to come.
“The idea behind the Men on Mission for the children, the President provides for the children with food among other things, it not just about karate, the whole programme teaches them mathematics, school work, and different things. The President is trying hard to uplift them and bring them more into society and IKO is supporting the physical part, the karate, teaching them the discipline, building
character, how we can help them be better persons.”
Wong who was born and raised in Laing Avenue says that karate has had a transformative impact on his life and he is eager to see similar happen for hundreds of children that he sees from day to day. “I was brought up in a ghetto area and it was very rough and I see a different way of living when I started karate, so that is how I started to learn about karate and made me what I am today, teaching discipline and everything else, so I decided to stick with it, I started to train with Frank Woon-A-Tai and got myself a black belt with him and with Guyana Karate College, I was the vice- chairman of that college and five years ago I moved on and formed the International Karate Organisation of Guyana.”
Wong said the support of President Ali has been instrumental in getting them into the schools and expanding their reach around the country and they continue to look for ways to help others. “Our Goal for IKO is to keep improving our standards, improving the standard of karate. We want to bring karate up to a different level in Guyana. We think that modern days karate is the best created…. it is a very discipline sport and we saw karate is a way of life, so when you
stick to the principles of karate and you start to learn karate then you will understand it will change you completely, make you a better person, you understand people more, it builds your
character.”
Sensei Wong said the many youngsters in that programme
will have a chance to showcase their skills learnlng to compete in the IKO Guyana Inter-Schools’ Competition set to be hosted for the first time around May-June this year.
