Wildlife Sanctuary Supporter

First Day

Upon arrival into Windhoek Airport you will be met by a project representative in the arrivals hall and transferred to the project site. The transfer is a drive of approximately 45 minutes. Once at the sanctuary you will settle in to your accommodation and spend rest of the day at the site meeting with other volunteers and volunteer coordinators before resting up for the day ahead.

Regular Days

On your typical working days you will work from approximately 8 am to 4 or 5 pm and have the evenings off. As the animals need to be fed and cared for during the weekends as well, you will also work on Saturday and Sunday mornings for a short period of time.

Typical day tasks include all aspects of the sanctuary work, like helping to rescue, care for, clean, feed and rehabilitate cheetahs, leopards, lions, African wild dogs, caracals, baboons, and other animals. You will have the opportunity to take part in most if not all of the below activities on a rotational basis. There may also be additional activities that you can get involved with once at the sanctuary.

Animal Feeding

This, as you can imagine, is one of the most important activities at the sanctuary. You will be responsible for preparing the food for and feeding all of the animals each day. Fruit, vegetables, meat, food leftovers (anything that can be recycled here will be!), miele pap (a kind of porridge), and milk formula for the little ones are used to feed the baboons and farm animals.

Carnivore Feeding

Volunteers are also able to experience carnivore-feeds with lions, leopards, semi-tame and wild cheetahs, and even with rare African wild dogs. You will also get to hand-feed the resident meerkats, which is a truly fantastic experience.

Baboon Care

As there are a large number of baby baboons resident at the centre you will be encouraged to help look after them, this will almost definitely include taking a walk across the beautiful veldt with the baby and junior baboons, an activity which is often a highlight for many volunteers. As part of the project you may also be needed to help feed them. 

Animal Time

This is often volunteers' favourite activity. You will get to spend part of each day playing with and looking after some of the animals on the farm. 

Project Work

The growing sanctuary needs constant repair and building work. Volunteers may be required to help with these tasks which include: constructing new enclosures as animals arrive, border fence patrols and de-bushing to remove invasive alien plant species.

Clever Cubs School 

On the site of the sanctuary is the Clever Cubs School. This is here to help educate the children of the local San tribe as well as some of the children whose parents work at the sanctuary. Volunteers will spend one afternoon a week working with the schoolchildren in the Clever Cubs school, helping to teach them English and games!

Night Watch

Stay in the watch tower for the night and watch the sunrise over the sanctuary grounds. volunteers will sleep in shifts, or can try and stay up together playing a wild game of eye spy!

Game Count by Horseback

This new activity offers you the chance to ride horses to do a game count of animals in the area. Animals that are usually skittish around vehicles allow the horses to get a lot closer, and it is a much more environmentally friendly way of getting the job done! (This activity will not run between 25th July and 5th September due to the horses needing their vaccinations).

A typical day at the Wildlife Sanctuary

7:00 am: Breakfast
8:00 am: Meeting with fellow volunteers and coordinators
8:30 am: Morning activities, distributed on a rotational basis
1:00 pm: Lunch break
2:30 pm: Afternoon activities
5:00 pm: Work is finished 
6:00 pm: Dinner

Last Day

After fond farewells on your last day with us, you will be transferred from the project site to Windhoek airport for your return flight, or to commence your independent travel plans.

Whilst on the project, you have the weekday evenings and Saturday and Sunday afternoons to relax (please note however that the animals still need to be fed on the weekends). This time can be spent enjoying activities such as a nature walk, swimming, playing football against the bushman workers, or an eco-challenge competing in groups. This is usually followed by a traditional braai (barbeque).

There are also some very special trips that are offered for an additional charge:

Ancient San Skills

Visit the San people and learn some of their ancient skills! (N$250 - £12.50) Nobody knows and understands the vast and dry southern African landscape better than the San people. Their expertise in understanding animals, plants and spoors is second to none. This activity is dependent upon enough volunteers wanting to participate and availability during busy periods. 

Neuras Conservation and Research Site OR Kanaan Conservation and Research Site

For an additional £120 you can swap one of your weeks at The Namibia Wildlife Sanctuary for a week exploring a mountainous area of Namibia (Saturday-Saturday) or the Namibian desert! 

African Wild Dog & Elephant Monitoring at Mangetti

If you want to make your trip to Namibia even more unique and special, then you can add a week at the Mangetti Research Site for just £120. Here you will take part in crucial elephant and African wild dog monitoring to help observe the behaviour of the animals and to note any patterns in their movements, group composition, and even mating habits. Through tracking and monitoring these animals, one of the aims is to be able to change the perception of local farmers who see them as a threat to their livelihood. Elephants are known to raid crops and African wild dogs pose a threat to the livestock on farms, so by working with the farmers to raise awareness of best practice when dealing with these animals you will help to make a difference. A weeks stay at Mangetti is a great way to see a side of Namibia which very few others have had the chance to.