Nizar 'Neezo' Dahan has been to places that most of us have only heard about on the news.
In his six years as an international volunteer and aid worker, he's been to refugee camps in places like Somalia, Lebanon and Syria - as well as helping poor communities in places such as Ghana and Bangladesh.
It's a far cry from his original career plan - which saw him start out in property development and marketing. But everything changed when he embarked on a 10-day volunteering trip that changed his life forever.
Fast forward to 2021 and he's still going strong - despite a brief run-in with ISIS, a deadly cyclone and a host of other dangers that would send most people looking for the first flight home.
But married dad-of-one Neezo, who comes from Swansea, isn't someone who is easily scared.
He said: "These can be dangerous places and we've definitely found ourselves in some dangerous circumstances. But we know what we are getting into, and we have to accept the risk of putting ourselves in danger in order to reach the most vulnerable people."
Neezo was born in Swansea to Libyan parents and was raised in the St Thomas area.
He said: "My parents moved here in the 1980s, and they always pushed me to be kind, to share and to help others. My father started with nothing and worked very hard to get to where we are now, and that's always been a huge drive for me."
And in 2015 Neezo went to volunteer at a refugee camp on the Greek Island of Samos - which had become a makeshift home to asylum seekers who had fled Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq.
He recalled: "I planned on spending ten days there. After witnessing the things that I did, I couldn't just walk away from it and I felt obliged to stay and help as much as I could. That ten days turned into seven months, and that seven months has now turned into a full-time job."
In Samos, Neezo set up a Iokasti's Kitchen, a social kitchen where he and his team cooked up to 1,500 meals a day for those in need - as well as providing meals for homeless Greek people.
He was quickly recruited by UK Charity the Human Relief Foundation, and by 2017, Neezo was nominated for the International St David Award for personally raising more than £100,000 to deliver aid to those in need in both Swansea and internationally - as well as winning the ITV Fundraiser of the Year Award.
When asked about his most rewarding trip, the 33-year-old recounts his trip to Bangladesh where he helped Rohingya Muslims fleeing genocide and persecution with the Human Relief Foundation.
He said: "When you go to a place like that, you witness people resorting to unimaginable horrors just for a little money to eat. We had a generous £8 million donation from an institutional donor to build a self-sustaining micro-village in Bangladesh, and as part of that we built a school for 150 children, a hot meal kitchen serving more than 1,100 meals a day, as well as a medical centre for primary health care."
The initial offer from the institution was £1.2 million, but after Neezo gave a presentation outlining a clear plan of action, the donor bumped it up to a staggering £8 million, keen to create long-lasting change.
During the Bangladesh trip, he said he had been putting in 13 hour shifts on just four hours sleep due to the scale of the crisis.
“I had to do as much as I could which was tiring, but it's definitely worth it," he said, speaking to WalesOnline from the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon.
Another proud moment in his life is helping to save the life of four-month-old boy in Amman, Jordan.
Baby Ahmed was born with a heart condition that severely affected his circulation and lungs, and a doctor advised that his condition would quickly turn critical without the right medical intervention.
"The operation cost £10,650, and when we put out the call for help, we raised that money plus more in one night. Three days later, the baby was successfully operated on," he added. "We checked up on the family eight months after and they were doing well. People are generous."
Neezo and the team recently raised £15,000 in less than two days to fund life-saving heart surgery for another baby in Lebanon, baby Amirah, who was suffering with a painful blocked artery.
International humanitarian work comes with inherent dangers, to which Neezo is no stranger.
In addition to a brief run in with ISIS, Neezo has faced a more indiscriminate threat while on a mission - cyclone season.
"Bangladesh is often hit hard by cyclones, and in 2018, as when we were about to leave, a bad cyclone hit. It caused extensive damage, as you can imagine, so we ended up extending our trip there to help deal with the aftermath."
Humbly, Neezo points out that there "isn't anything special" about him - he is only doing what's right, and what others can do if they make the step.
"I made one small step back in 2015, and that's it. The ultimate goal is to keep moving forward with it, and to get as many others on board as we can - because everyone makes a difference. There are so many opportunities for people to get involved and our doors are always open to new people."
The current project in Lebanon, nearby the Syrian border, is focused on helping Syrian, Palestinian and Lebanese and families in need. Funded by the Salam charity - a UK-based charity that works to help orphans - the project is focused on sustainability, and it aims to equip people with the means and skills to gain employment and independence.
He said: "We have quite a lot of different things going on here in Lebanon and it's been busy. As well as the providing hot meals and medical care, we're also working on projects to help empower Syrian, Palestinian and Lebanese women, hosting micro-gardening projects, tent rehabilitation projects, as well as orphan psychosocial care."
"The ultimate goal is to do more than just feed the hungry: it's to help provide these people with real opportunities and skills which they otherwise might not have had."
While Neezo has a strong network of support in Swansea, local reception to his work isn't always as warm as you'd expect, with some hurling abuse that he should be "helping people at home" first.
He said: "We work in Swansea as well as internationally, and we've worked extensively with local charities, foodbanks and homeless shelters in Swansea. Throughout the pandemic, we provided hot cooked meals for struggling families in the city - with the help of my sister - and we made ourselves as useful to locals as we could."
As the project in Lebanon comes to a close, he said: "I have fallen in love with this country, and I'm grateful to have experienced the culture, customs and kindness of complete strangers who made us feel at home."
Looking forward, he has no plans of slowing down his efforts - only to dial them up.
"We always want to prioritise the quality of what we do rather than the quantity, but in the future we are definitely are looking to branch out to more locations based on need. The more people we can get on board with this, the better, and I encourage anybody who's interested in this sort of work to reach out to us."
He added: "Even now, I still don't feel like I'm doing enough, and I regret that I didn't get into this sooner - but we can only look forward and what's still left to achieve.
"I miss my family when I travel and there are some things that I wish I could be there to see all of the time, but I'm confident that when my son grows up, he'll understand."
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