Movement Heals
Sports Connects

The Challenge

For millions of displaced young people, sport and play are out of reach. Camps and settlements lack safe spaces, equipment, and trained coaches. What should be a normal part of growing up — movement, teamwork, joy — is often lost.

Instead, children face violence, exploitation, child labour, and early marriage. School fades. Hope fades. And the absence of movement becomes emotional too — feeding despair, depression, addiction, and dangerous migration.

But sport can flip the script. With the right support, it brings confidence, connection, and purpose. It opens up new paths — helping young people become leaders, athletes, and role models in their communities and beyond.

A blue Toyota vehicle driving on a rural road with four men on top, and a small auto rickshaw in the background.
Children playing in a narrow alleyway between makeshift shelters made of fabric and wood.
Group of people on the beach watching a boy doing a handstand in the sand.
Abstract landscape with colorful, stylized mountain and terrain shapes in pink, orange, green, yellow, and cream, and a yellow sun in the sky.

Our Programs

MiR launched its first programs in Bangladesh, in Cox’s Bazar — a coastal district bordering Myanmar. Since 2017, over a million Rohingya Muslims have fled genocide in Myanmar, crossing rivers and marshes with little more than the clothes on their backs. The trauma of that flight remains raw. The sheer scale of the influx has placed immense strain on local communities, authorities, and the environment, as refugees were granted land by the government. MiR works with both refugee and host communities in this region.

Building Strength & Confidence in the Refugee Camps

Three young girls practicing yoga or stretching together inside a room with hanging clothes and other people in the background.

MIR coaches are working with over 150 children and young people across eight communities in three refugee camps. Each group trains twice a week for 2.5 hours. 

Every session begins with warm-ups, strength and flexibility exercises, basic yoga, and movement training. Then it’s time for spikeball—also known as roundnet, football or volleyball where each group builds teamwork, skills, and confidence, training toward future leagues and competitions.  

The response has been overwhelmingly positive. Parents tell us there are no other fitness opportunities like this.  For boys and young men who have little else to do, and for girls and young mothers who grow weaker each week without physical activity. Now, they say, these sessions are bringing strength, joy, and confidence back into their lives.  Our trainers have been told how much they appreciate female coaches for girls and men for boys!

Football/Soccer, Fitness & New Possibilities

Group of children playing soccer on a sandy field outdoors.

In another part of the camps, Jasmin Akter leads a team of 10 dedicated coaches delivering football training to over 80 boys and young men. A separate group focuses on girls and women, offering sessions in physical fitness, yoga, and strength-building—often for the very first time in their lives.

Training space is a major challenge. The only available football/soccer grounds can be used just four months a year. MIR is working to change that.

We aim to raise funds to rent dedicated training spaces near the camps—so these programs can continue year-round and grow to include other sports like volleyball and roundnet. For these young people, access to sport isn’t just about play—it’s about building confidence, skills and positive mentors. 

Surf, Safety & Sport on the Coast of Bangladesh

Four children and one adult standing on sandy beach holding surfboards, dressed in casual beachwear.

Fatima and Millie, both 17, are trailblazing members of Bangladesh’s growing surf scene. Their dream? To one day represent their country as its first women's surfing team in the Olympic Games.

MIR is proud to support them on this journey—helping Fatima and Millie become the country’s first certified female surf and sports trainers, inspiring a new generation of girls to move, play, and lead.

Together with local lifeguard coaches and experienced male surfers, we’re expanding training into smaller coastal communities—bringing vital water safety skills and surfing opportunities to young people who’ve never had access before.

At the same time, we’re seeding new energy into the coastline through spikeball and volleyball leagues, helping create a vibrant sporting culture rooted in confidence, inclusion, and joy.

Powered by People Who Love to Move

MiR is more than a humanitarian project — it’s a people-powered movement.

Our work is made possible by a global community of individuals who understand the joy and power of movement. From early-morning yogis and weekend hikers to professional athletes, retired coaches, fans in massive stadiums and everyday lovers of sport — we are building a network of people who believe that moving the body is essential to health, hope, and human spirit.

Whether it's the freedom of a run, the focus of stretching, the thrill of a game, or the calm of breathing outdoors, this movement taps into the universal language of physical activity. These are people who know firsthand how sport lifts us up — and who want to share that gift with young people who’ve been pushed to the margins by conflict and crisis.

As governments around the world retreat from international aid, MiR invites people everywhere to step forward. Through small monthly donations, direct outreach, or even coaching visits, we are connecting communities across continents — person to person, coach to coach, teammate to teammate.

We’ll bring international athletes and trainers — active or retired, in-season or between seasons — to help train local coaches in refugee and host communities. These mentors will pass on world-class techniques, boost skills, and fuel inspiration. In turn, local youth will find the guidance and encouragement they need to shine.

Because movement is not a luxury. It is a lifeline — to health, connection, recovery, and greatness.

Together, we will create something extraordinary.

Together, in solidarity.

Together, we will build MiR — movement, harmony, community, peace.

A group of young boys and a man standing barefoot on a beach, with one boy talking to the others while holding a yellow rescue float, some of them wear bathing suits and a man wears a face mask.
Four people practicing yoga on the beach, with three standing and stretching their arms overhead and one bending forward.

Why We Work.
How We Work.

Displacement doesn’t just take homes — it steals opportunities to move, play, and grow. In crowded camps and informal settlements, young people are left without safe spaces, without coaches, without a team to belong to.

Movement in Refuge exists to change that.

We partner with trusted local organizations who share our values and have strong systems for safeguarding and accountability. Together, we co-create inclusive, structured sports programs where they’re needed most — in both displaced and host communities.

We start by listening. Our teams learn what’s already there, what’s missing, and where sport can make a real impact. Then we identify potential coaches from within the community — people who are respected, motivated, and ready to lead.

These coaches become more than trainers. They’re mentors and role models, equipped with training in trauma awareness, child protection, civic values, and sports science. Every coach is trained in safeguarding, with zero tolerance for abuse.

Our model is long-term. Locally led. Built for real impact.

We aim to strengthen social ties — between refugees and host communities — through shared play and competition. And while sport is our focus, we stay open to what communities love: dance, art, gardening, or theatre.

Because movement is just the beginning.

Group of women practicing yoga in a rustic indoor space with wooden walls, sitting on the floor with their legs bent and arms extended overhead.
Children playing and running in the shallow ocean water at the beach.

The Results

MiR is taking action to restore movement, hope, and opportunity through:

Five boys sitting on a bamboo railing, with some arms around each other's shoulders, in front of a bamboo and cloth wall, one holding a soccer ball, all dressed casually.

  • Sport Where It’s Needed Most

    Bringing sport, play, and organized physical activity to camps and settlements for refugees, displaced people, and nearby local communities.

  • Safety at the Core

    Building safeguarding, child protection and prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse into the very core of everything we do.

  • Local Coaches, Lasting Impact

    Training coaches and mentors from within the communities – so that sports coaching is sensitive to the local culture and the limitations specific to their local context.

  • Empowering Girls from Day One

    Investing in women empowerment and Girl Power from the outset, working with families and community leaders to ensure compliance with cultural norms and standards.

  • Here for the Long Haul

    Aiming for long-term support – it can take a generation to raise a champion and we should remain committed to the communities we start with for that time.

  • Tournaments That Inspire

    Hosting tournaments and sporting events, amplified through social media to connect young people across the world.

  • Global Friendships Through Play

    Connecting youth across borders through letters, shared stories, and virtual exchange — building solidarity and global friendships.

A group of six women, some wearing niqabs and headscarves, participating in a yoga or exercise class with their arms raised above their heads in a decorated room with colorful paper tags hanging from the ceiling.
Four girls in traditional clothing standing and smiling indoors on a colorful striped mat.

Theory of Change

Because millions of displaced young people lack safe access to sport and movement, we train local coaches—through trusted grassroots partners—funded by a global community of sporting enthusiasts, to deliver lasting change in refugee camps, border zones, and host communities, for a generation: the time it takes to build a champion or an unstoppable team.