Over 50s volunteering with elephants, South Africa

Planet

Animal welfare
This research and care programme has been running since 2010. It is overseen by an experienced and well-regarded team. Although the elephants do have contact with humans, they are helped and encouraged to live as naturally as possible, roaming freely across the park in a matriarchal herd. As well as protecting individual elephants the organisation aims to improve public awareness about safeguarding their environment.

The elephants at the park are the main priority; their conservation, their care and their rehabilitation. Education on elephants, habitat destruction, the illegal ivory trade and exploiting elephants is also hugely important. Visitors come to the park and are given a presentation and a tour, meet the elephants and learn all about their backgrounds.

The main backbone of the volunteer programme is research and conservation. This is led by a qualified and experienced team, who have been working with these elephants for years. Many of the elephants come to the park in a distressed state, needing care and time to recover from their trauma.

There is no elephant back riding allowed at the park.

Protecting the world
We are passionate about encouraging our travellers to be kind to the environment as they travel. Each participant receives advice about how to care for the environment whilst they are away. This includes water usage, how to avoid single use plastic, and electricity usage.

We insist that all participants bring their own water bottles when they travel with us, and clean free water is always available. We have even created a water bottle that can be purchased before departure and encourage people to use it at all stages of their journey including at the airport, on flights and whilst on their project. We are striving for all of our projects to be free of single use plastic.

Each volunteer is provided with a reuseable travel mug and a cloth bag.

People

Meeting local needs
The park plays an important role in protecting the local economy. The ‘big five’ wild animals are a key source of tourist income for South Africa and protection of these species is vital for some rural areas, who rely on responsible tourism to sustain them. By volunteering at the park, you will be helping to meet an important local need. You will also contribute directly to the area’s economy, creating jobs for domestic staff at the park, eating locally-sourced food and making use of shops and leisure facilities in the town. You will not be taking jobs away from local people.The organisation employs as many local staff as it can afford, but relies on volunteers to support them.

Cultural sensitivity
We emphasise the importance of showing respect for local people and their customs in our briefing material. Participants will work alongside permanent staff, forming close bonds and getting an insight into real life in rural South Africa.