About Movement in Refuge (MiR)
MiR is an international organisation promoting physical and mental health through sport and movement training to create safe, structured opportunities for conflict-affected communities. We started in the Rohingya refugee camps along the Bangladesh Myanmar border, home to one of the world’s largest refugee settlements, since 2017.
Our work is grounded in the conviction that sports and movement are beneficial to everyone and that people who have suffered enormous trauma and upheaval would greatly benefit from healthy movement, play and sport.
Together with our Bangladeshi partner NGO Sports for Hope and Independence (SHI), we deliver safe, dynamic and consistent coaching for women and girls, separately, for men and boys. Our trainers come from Bangladeshi Universities with degrees in physical education and sports science. They train refugees we refer to as community-based coaches - who are from and live in the refugee camps. Our planned academic partnerships with the University of Edinburgh, Leeds Beckett University, i-coach kids, will anchor our practice in research, and our growing connections across the UN system mean our work is scaling. We are at a pivotal moment and need your support to achieve our potential.
The Role
As Yoga intern, you will use your connection to the yoga world to build awareness of and support for MiR's yoga programme, while also contributing to the development of the programme itself. You will reach out to yoga studios, teachers, federations, and online communities who can support MiR - through partnerships, equipment donations, fundraising events, or simply spreading the word about what we do.
At the same time, you will help ensure that MiR offers thoughtfully designed and adapted yoga to the specific needs of the communities it serves. This is a role that requires both outreach energy and genuine sensitivity - an understanding of yoga not just as a practice, but as a tool for healing, and empowerment in one of the world's most challenging environments.
Key Responsibilities
Build and maintain relationships with yoga studios, teachers, teacher training programmes, and relevant federations or associations on MiR's behalf.
Reach out to online yoga communities and platforms to raise awareness of MiR's work and identify partnership opportunities.
Pursue donations and identify sponsorship or fundraising opportunities within the yoga world.
Support the organisation of charity yoga events, classes, or fundraisers that generate awareness and income for MiR.
Contribute to the development and refinement of MiR's yoga curriculum, ensuring it is culturally appropriate, trauma-informed, and adapted to the needs of those in the camps.
Collaborate with MiR's coaching team and field team to ensure quality and consistency of yoga programme delivery.
Contribute to communications and social media content related to yoga, helping articulate the value of the programme to external audiences.
Keep MiR leadership regularly updated on outreach activity, partnerships, and opportunities within the yoga community.
What you will Gain
Being part of the MiR internship programme means joining a lean, fast-moving international development organisation at a pivotal moment in its growth. You will gain:
Meaningful experience of connecting a practice you are passionate about to humanitarian work with real impact.
Hands-on experience in programme development, community outreach, and partnership building.
An understanding of how trauma-informed and gender-sensitive approaches shape the delivery of movement and wellbeing programmes in displacement settings.
Real responsibility and visibility within both MiR and the broader yoga community.
A formal reference letter from MiR leadership upon successful completion.
Access to MiR's growing network of academic, UN, and civil society partners.
Mentorship from practitioners with decades of field experience across the UN system and international NGOs.
Time commitment
5–20 hours per week over a minimum of 4 months. This is a remote, unpaid internship. Hours are flexible and can be arranged around your academic or professional commitments. There would be an opportunity to come to Cox’s Bazar and engage directly with MiRs yoga programme.
How you will be supported
MiR is small but structured. Every intern is assigned a direct point of contact within our team who will oversee your work and provide regular feedback. You will receive a structured onboarding covering MiR's mission, values, safeguarding framework, and current priorities - including the full context of our yoga programme, its participants, and the principles that guide its delivery. We hold regular team check-ins and will not leave you to figure things out alone.
We take your development seriously. We want you to leave with more skills, more confidence, and a clearer understanding of how impactful organisations communicate in complex environments - and how humanitarian organisations respond to large scale disasters and migration crises.
Eligibility
If you are a yoga practitioner, teacher, or enthusiast with a genuine interest in MiR's mission: using movement to improve lives in some of the world's most challenging humanitarian settings. What you need is a real connection to the yoga world, an understanding of why the practice matters beyond the studio, and the sensitivity to appreciate how it must be adapted to serve communities that are living through profound hardship. Experience with trauma-informed yoga, women's wellbeing, or community-based teaching is a strong advantage. Existing connections to studios, teacher training programmes, or yoga organisations are particularly welcome.