Ravindra Watudura Bandanage

I am Ravindra Watudura Bandanage, and am writing this testimonial of my volunteer experience for Bring Hope Humanitarian Foundation during a recent trip to Iraqi Kurdistan. I am currently a resident of the UAE, and owner of www.fitdxb.com which is a health and fitness concept in the UAE.

I volunteered as a fitness consultant for Bring Hope Humanitarian Foundation with the aim of helping refugees strengthen themselves, so they will be prepared to participate in the future economy of the country. Refugees live in confined areas and therefore have minimal movements -- mostly their daily routine is sitting.

Sitting for long periods can reduce the strength of skeleton muscle and simultaneously joint strength may get weaker. This can lead to arthritis, scoliosis and kyphosis-type issues for them in the future. These people need a solution, so the solution is to exercise. I handed over a proposal to Bring Hope Foundation.

Bring Hope Foundation approved my proposal and sent me to Iraq to conduct an awareness and basic fitness program. The experience I had with the refugees and Bring Hope Foundation staff was GREAT. Bring Hope Foundation took very good care of me and the entire trip was very well organised. From the head of the organization to the ground level staff, everyone was very respectful.

Every day after my volunteer work, I spoke with Dr. Mariwan Baker, Founder and Board Chairman, to share my feedback of the day and explain what my plan would be for the next day.

I am thankful to Bring Hope Foundation for their efforts to help refugees, I realised how much people love to strengthen themselves. We did not have enough spots for everyone who wanted to participate so we had to turn some back from involvement in the session.

Finally, I love to recommend Bring Hope Foundation’s work to support refugees. In my opinion, if anyone wants to help people through volunteer work, this is the best place. Bring Hope Foundation …that is the place for you.