HAKIZIMANA Parfait

Origin of Impairment
Acquired (olympics.com, 28 Jun 2021)

Impairment Details
In 1996, the camp for internally displaced people he lived in as a result of the Burundian Civil War was attacked. His mother was shot and killed, while he suffered gunshot wounds to his left arm. He spent two years recovering in hospital and was left with permanent damage to his arm. "In Africa, the medical care isn't great, my arm was injured badly and it took a long time to heal." (olympics.com, 28 Jun 2021)

General
FLEEING BURUNDI
In 2015 he fled his home country of Burundi due to increasing violence and began living in the Mahama Refugee Camp in Rwanda. He had previously seen his mother killed in 1996 after the camp he lived in during the Burundian Civil War came under attack, which also resulted in his impairment from a gunshot wound. His father also passed away in a motorcycle accident in 2008. "I was very scared of staying in Burundi to be shot like my mother. That's why I decided to leave the country. It was very difficult. I had made a decision to leave without a family. I had no friends in Rwanda, I came alone. When we arrived here in Rwanda, life was very complicated because we lived in tents, and we didn't have anything to eat or drink." (Paralympic Games YouTube channel, 27 Jun 2021; paralympic.org, 27 Jun 2021; olympics.com, 28 Jun 2021; UNHCR YouTube channel, 19 Aug 2021)

COACHING
Before fleeing Burundi, he set up a taekwondo club in the country in 2010. He has since founded a new club in the Mahama Refugee Camp in Rwanda, where he has trained over 1,000 fellow refugees including children as young as age six. "I opened a taekwondo school so I could help others, children, adults, women, girls. I just wanted to help other refugees like me. I do this so that I can encourage people not to lose hope. Taekwondo became the natural point of contact when I came to Rwanda. When I arrived there, I found all martial arts were mixed. I divided them and made taekwondo separate. It's a big community and it's kind of like my family. Refugees don't have a lot. But sport helps them forget their troubles." (UNHCR YouTube channel, 19 Aug 2021; insidethegames.biz, 01 Jul 2021; olympics.com, 28 Jun 2021; m.worldtaekwondo.org, 01 Jan 2017)