Wildlife Orphanage and Rescue Sanctuary in Zimbabwe

I volunteered for one month! And I had the best time! I had the opportunity to interact with all animals from guinea pigs to lions and baboons! I also met the locals, which was great and we also helped inform local schools about animals in their area which was really nice too! Overall amazing experience, and I would love to do it again!

It is a wonderful opportunity. It is incredibly rewarding and a chance to get involved with another culture, learn about so many new things and meet amazing people just like yourself who want to help make a difference. My favourite task on my project must have been looking after two baby baboons. This involved going into the baby baboons cage and allowing them to interact with humans by playing with them. This was not always easy as one of them liked to bite and you would have to tell him off as his mother would have done in the wild. Despite this, this task was definitely one of the most rewarding ones! However it did make it hard to say goodbye after three weeks! My greatest achievement actually was not on my project, it was the journey to my project. I have never travelled alone and I have a fear of flying. Getting on the plane from London to Johannesburg was terrifying. I had a break down on the plane as I was so scared, however, the crew members were amazing and put me at ease. Managing that flight was my greatest achievement regarding my trip and it is something I am extremely proud of. I felt that I made a difference, even if it was only small, I helped with improvements around Chipangali which will benefit the animals. One day we went to another town to hang up posters and hand out leaflets which encouraged people who know of anyone who has a vervet monkey as a pet to call Chipangali and give the animal to a better, safer environment. This was a very important task and I really hope it makes a difference in the future for vervet monkey's. My advice for future participants is get involved and make the most of every moment! The whole experience will be one I will never forget however there is one moment that stands out at my ultimate favourite. During my project we took a trip to Victoria Falls, where I got the opportunity to do an Elephant encounter. This involved touching the Elephants, walking with them as they would in the wild in their herd and then feeding them. It was an incredible moment.

Kaya are good at helping you and making sure you have settled into your programme once you are there. They reply quickly and I received frequent emails from them just checking up on how I was. Looking after all the animals... (the whole experience!) was great. My greatest achievement was building a mud tunnel for Breezer the bush pig. Even when I wasn't working and I was just spending time with the animals I felt like I was helping them. My most memorable moments were seeing the stars, stroking the lions and leopards, time with other volunteers, the rhino walk, Victoria falls....everything. Some advice for future participants is to bring more than two pairs of shorts and three t-shirts. Also bring money for snacks - you will have chocolate cravings!

The project is a unique place, but they went through a lot of troubles over the years according to ecologic disasters, poaching, the economic situation of the country. They really need the help of volunteers to take care of the animals they are rescuing and the ones they unfortunately can’t put back in the wild for various reasons. We had a lot of responsibilities and could participate in all the tasks. We were really close to all the animals and even had baby times to spend with little monkeys or other small animals. When we were there, there was a young lion that they took out for a walk around the orphanage, we got to go with them and even touch him, it’s impossible to describe what you feel in this moment. What does travelling as a volunteer mean to you vs travelling as a tourist? It gives a true meaning to your trip and you discover the local life as you would never do as a tourist. We have spent a lot of time with owners and their family, heard true stories about their experiences and their everyday life. You have so much more to share around you when you come back from such a trip, and helping others gives a special satisfaction. I feel lucky to have lived such an experience and even more concerned about animal rescue. I feel stronger as I did things I thought I would not be able to. Now I want to continue this project and find a way to support the centre from home. Volunteer Experience: I am an animal lover and wanted to live a unique experience as a volunteer while discovering the real Africa. It was a full immersion with wildlife animals. We had a briefing every morning to know our tasks for the day. It went from taking care of the nursery where they keep small injured animals, to cleaning and restore cages, collect plants for the antelopes or straw in the fields, and last but not least, feed the big cats and collect bones in their cages. We also had the opportunity to help the people working with the big cats to prepare the food, I would have never thought I could be able to do this but it was an amazing experience. Living Situation: We slept in a hut together with my friend. As it was winter time it was very cold at night but our hosts gave us extra blankets. We had hot water in the showers that we shared with other volunteers. We were always eating all together, having breakfast in the volunteers’ kitchen and lunch and dinner at the house with the owners. We were happy to go in town sometimes to buy extra snacks as you get really hungry after working all day. My only worry was not to see lions or other big cats. As it is an orphanage you never know which animals will be there when you come. But instead I got to work every day with a dozen of lions, 5 leopards, and other big cats. I will never forget the sound of their roar… Program Administration: I first tried to organize this trip from a local agency in Geneva and unfortunately they could not find anything available fitting my requests. I was delighted to find Kaya while searching the web for a solution. You managed to identify a fantastic project for me and convinced the representative to accept me and my friend even though we were coming for a short period. Thanks to Kaya I could spend my birthday as I wished.