2006 – Ben Evans began teaching Taekwon-Do at Havelock North High School for the Special Needs Unit (SNU) under the full guidance and support of Mrs. Bethne Hoquard (Head of the Department). It started as a trial and continued once a week. As time consisted, the programme became successful and continued to develop with more added aspects and focus for the students.
2008 – Ben met with Sport Hawkes Bay and other providers/schools for those with disabilities with the full support of Bethne Hoquard who arranged the meeting to help with seeing more schools with students who had disabilities get involved. As a result, Kowhai Special School and well known teacher Judy Cossey initiated the programme and was the second school to involve her satelite class in Taekwon-Do. Ben began reaching out to schools in the Flaxmere area to see how he could best help and support the kids with the programme he wanted to offer other schools. He had a strong passion to work with kids in the low decile areas. He felt many would benefit with training to help them in other areas of their lives. Cost was a barrier for many so he continued to provide at minimal cost to enable more kids to be involved.
2009 – Ben continued growing the numbers and support which saw more schools and students involved. Ben traveled to the ITF World Championships in St Petersburg, Russia to compete for New Zealand and begin networking for the work he was doing for Special Needs Taekwon-Do. It was unheard of in the International Taekwon-Do Federation (ITF) and they were showing interest.
2010 – The first championships was held in Clive, Hawkes Bay which saw able bodied athletes competing against those with disabilities. It was a first in the world to happen as no one had ever done this before. The students with disabilities put on a demonstration for the TVNZ National TV and appeared on the programme Seven Sharp which showcased the work Ben had done. After this event, Ben had a meeting with Hohepa Hawkes Bay who contacted him after hearing about the work and recent championships. This was the start to Hohepa becoming involved in Taekwon-Do. At this point more kids with and without disabilities from low decile areas were joining and becoming more involved.
2011 – The first in the World demonstration for promoting Special Needs Taekwon-Do was held at the ITF World Championships in Pyongyang, DPR KOREA. It was a huge success which helped many countries internationally to better see and understand the capabilities of those with intellectual disabilities involved in Taekwon-Do. The demonstration was well supported by the ITF. The demonstration team from New Zealand was awarded Gold, Silver and Bronze medals.
2012 – Ben began writing the book “Special Needs Taekwon-Do” which there was no such publication internationally how to teach and develop this in each country. It was a first of its kind which was well supported by special education teachers. Another school in Flaxmere, Irongate school, jumped on board in support and saw many kids joining and becoming very involved. From here, Taekwon-Do was building very strong seeing great numbers learning and progressing up the grades. Te Awa School joined on board and saw more kids involved and learning Taekwon-Do.
2013 – Ben put on demonstration of Special Needs Taekwon-Do lead by a strong number of his students with disabilities for the New Zealand (at the time) Prime Minister Hon RT. John Key. Ben presented his book to the Prime Minister for his thoughts and comments. Overall, the Prime Minister was impressed and didn’t realise the capabilities of what to expect from this demonstration. Ben competed in the ITF World Championships in Bulgaria and was awarded by ITF President Prof. Chang Ung the ITF Outstanding Instructor Medal for his work with special needs. Ben took his book to promote his work in Bulgaria.
2014 – 2015 – Continued development with the improvement of the Special Needs Taekwon-Do Book releasing 2nd edition update.
Ben attended the Son of the Founder Grand Master Choi Jung Hwa IIC and presented the Special Needs Taekwon-Do concept. They later announced they will have a special needs division at their World Championships in England which Ben would work with the tournament committee.
2016 – Special Needs Taekwon-Do Demonstration Team attended England World Championships GM Choi Jung Hwa organisation and promoted. There was a division for those with disabilities. New Zealand competed among Argentina, USA and brought back 3 Gold, 3 Silver and 2 Bronze. Ben helped to raise enough money for his team of both special needs and mainstream. One of his mainstream competitors came from Irongate School, Rahera Heke, who was in the 10-11 year old girls Patterns and Sparring. She won a Gold in the sparring division. It was a huge achievement for all competitors coming back to New Zealand with the results they achieved.
2017 – continued work and development with both special needs and the low decile community within Hawkes Bay. Ben selected a strong 18 team for the next world championship in Argentina consisting of 8 mainstream and 11 special needs athletes.
2018 – New Zealand attended the World Championships Grand Master Choi Jung Hwa organisation and won 34 Gold, 20 Silver and 12 Bronze medals overall between the athletes with and without disabilities. There were more from Irongate School who were selected and did really well.
2019 – New Zealand held a world first solely focused World Championships for special needs athletes which saw 11 countries attend with athletes who had disabilities. It was a great success. New Zealand won the overall country with Netherlands 2nd, USA and Canada 3rd equal. The International Inclusive Taekwon-Do Association was born shortly after the World Championships which saw Australia, Canada, England, Greece, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia and USA join officially. It was decided the name ‘Special Needs’ was no longer the best term to use, so Ben Evans brought the new name “Inclusive Taekwon-Do’ was more appropriate and was well supported by all countries, so the IITA was born.
2020 – Feilding and Palmerston North Branch was opened by Ms. Brittany Blencoe and Mr. Paul Ben for those with disabilities. The charity run by Ben Evans and his committee opened up the FREE Community Gym called All Abilities Fitness, since then, the name changed to “Inclusive Fitness” which was designed to support those with mental health challenges, elderly, those with disabilities and youth at risk to help them benefit and have their own space and great environment.
2020 – New Zealand organised and arranged the first World Championships Online (Due to Covid) which was well supported by ITF and ISCORE Founder Mr. Anton Arkhipov who helped to put the video content from each country together.
2020-2021 – Due to Covid, there wasn’t too much activity but a 2nd IITA Online World Championships was held with great support from numerous countries. Continued growth of countries involved in IITA.
2022 – Ben selected a strong team of 15 mainstream kids from Tamatea Primary, Irongate School and other areas (majority from both schools low decile) and contributed to helping raise a lot of the money through a strong campaign for the kids to represent New Zealand at the ITF World Cup in Santiago Del Estero, Argentina. The team brought back 12 Gold, 7 Silver and 7 Bronze. The team featured on the Newshub morning news. It was a wonderful trip for our kids.
2023 – New Zealand will host the IITA World Championships in October 10-14th with its first NZ ITF International Open.