NAMIBIA WILDLIFE SANCTUARY
NEAR WINDHOEK, NAMIBIA

This project provides volunteers with a exciting opportunity to work closely with and actively participate in the conservation of African wildlife.  The Namibia Wildlife Sanctuary was set up to care for and protect wildlife (mainly big cats) in trouble from all over the country. Volunteers will work with a wide range of African wildlife, including the beautiful tame cheetahs!  Take advantage of this unique opportunity to help care for lions, leopards, cheetahs, and much more.

	Location:	NEAR WINDHOEK, NAMIBIA	Dates:	Volunteers can join throughout the year, we ask you to arrive on a Monday or Tuesday if possible.
	Fees:	£805 - 2 weeks £1,195 - 3 weeks £1,495 - 4 weeks £1,795 - 5 weeks £2,095 - 6 weeks £2,295 - 7 weeks £2,495 - 8 weeks £3,195 - 11 weeks £3,365 - 12 weeks	Payment:	£180 deposit at time of booking – balance payment of project fee due 12 weeks before departure
	Reference:	AV001

General Information

The reserve, situated in a 1500 hectare game camp within striking distance of Windhoek, is set in the majestic savanna of the region with areas of vegetation extending up to a beautiful mountain backdrop. The Otjihase River cuts through the land in the summer months and hartebeest, oryx, springbok, kudu and occasional cheetah and leopard roam freely across the land.  

The reserve serves as a safe home for wildlife in trouble from all over Namibia and volunteers help the dedicated staff to rescue, care for and rehabilitate these wonderful animals. This project directs all its efforts towards long term rehabilitation but sadly not all of the animals who find a home here are able to be released back into the wild. Only those that can’t, mostly for reasons of human impact, remain at the sanctuary. Many of the animals have been orphaned, hand raised from a very young age or have become too used to captivity and cannot safely be released.

This project provides volunteers with a exciting opportunity to work closely with and actively participate in the conservation of African wildlife. The sanctuary currently provides a safe refuge for orphaned and injured wildlife including lions, leopards, cheetahs, wild dogs, caracals and baboons. Our Wildlife Conservation Volunteers provide an important resource in caring for and feeding the animals on a daily basis, helping to maintain and develop the sanctuary and becoming surrogate parents to our orphaned baby baboons who need constant care and attention.  Volunteers are likely to meet the two gorgeous leopard cubs - Shakira and Ombelie - who arrived at the Sanctuary in December 2009.  A farmer had captured their mother and contacted the Sanctuary when the cubs were born as he realised he could not look after them.  Sadly they had already been removed from their mother and arrived very underweight and malnourished.  They were about eight weeks old and had no fur, masses of spare skin and dull, straggly coats.  However, they have developed into beautiful young cubs with glossy coats and strong characters and love their daily walk with the volunteers when they can climb trees in their natural environment and practice their stalking skills.  They have become firm favourites with the volunteers who love to feed them and see them up close.  However, please bear in mind that they are growing and getting stronger each day and volunteers may not be able to walk with them at all times.

Volunteers also get the rare opportunity to work alongside our big cat experts and Bushman trackers in our conservation research programme. This may include getting involved with the monitoring and tracking activities of a number of leopard and cheetah within the local area, taking part in game counts or preparing for new arrivals. The research project fits captured cats with a radio collar before releasing them back into the wild. This allows them to track their movements, check on their condition and gain a better understanding of their ecology for future conservation. Proven problem animals are also relocated to safer conservation areas to reduce the number that are needlessly shot or killed by farmers protecting their livestock.

The aim is to provide volunteers with the wonderful opportunity to experience African wilderness in the knowledge that they are contributing to the conservation of this area.

Volunteer Programme

Volunteers are key to the success of the wildlife sanctuary - participation in the programme ensures the rescue, survival and rehabilitation of the animals which have found a safe home their.  

Please bear in mind that this information is meant as a guide as the very nature of a wildlife sanctuary means the mix of wildlife can change at any time.

Volunteer Activities

Volunteers will be split into groups with fellow volunteers, rotating duties daily to undertake the following activities:

Feeding and Caring for the Animals

Volunteers will be responsible for preparing the food, feeding the animals and maintaining the animal enclosures:

• Preparing and feeding vegetables, fruit and mieliepap to the baboons and farm animals including our lambs, donkey, kudu, duiker, pigs, sheep and chickens. 
• Cutting raw meat for the big cats, throwing meat to the lions, leopards, semi-tame and wild cheetahs, African wild dogs and hand feeding the meerkats. Volunteers may also have the opportunity to join our guest big cat feeding tour where you will assist the tour guide with feeding the animals.
• Clearing out the animal enclosures (old bones), cleaning waterholes and fixing any holes or damage to the enclosures.

Animal Socialising

You will get to spend part of each day playing with and looking after some of animals:

• Spending time with the semi-tame meerkats and cheetahs and baby baboons.
• Volunteers will enjoy taking the tame cheetah, caracals and even perhaps the young leopard cubs for a walk or spending time with them in their enclosures. 
• Caring for the orphaned baboons (currently over 20 baboons from six months to four years old)
• Volunteers will rotate responsibility for bottle feeding and sleeping overnight with the baby baboons which are too small to live in the camp with the young baboons.
• Baby, senior and big baboon walks take place a number of times each week to give them regular exercise.

Assisting with the Bushman School

Volunteers will spend at least one morning assisting the teacher in the San Bushman school on the farm, started to provide education to the children whose parents cannot afford to send them to school. This is a great fun and very rewarding activity.  There are approximately 30 pupils ranging in age from 1 - 15 years old.  Staff work hard to secure places for the children in mainstream schools in Windhoek and currently transport 9 children into Windhoek each day for schooling.

Big Cat Conservation Work 

Volunteers spend time with the big cat research and San Bushman tracking team:

• This may include learning and taking part in various monitoring and tracking techniques such as searching for cheetah marking trees, locating collared leopard and cheetah through telemetry and GPS tracking, identifying, counting and tracking spoors (paw prints) and checking box traps
• Undertaking game counts and building or clearing out temporary enclosures for new residents.
• Contributing to the conservation research project to help conserve the cheetah and leopard and help prevent human-wildlife conflict.

Project Work 

Volunteers will also undertake project work which varies depending on what is currently needed at the sanctuary. Current long-term projects include the following

• De-bushing: Black thorn is an invader bush and takes up a lot of nutrients which means that better vegetation finds it very hard to survive. Volunteers will help to remove most of the very dense patches of black thorn from areas in order to allow other vegetation to grow and for game to become more visible.
• Fence Break down: this is an important project to reach our goal of creating a large fenceless reserve in central Namibia allowing game and wildlife to roam freely for the benefit of conservation. Volunteers will play an important part in removing the lengths of fencing on our land and that joining our neighbours.
• As new animals arrive new enclosures may have to be built; you may need to assist the San Bushman workers with the preparation of materials, digging foundations and waterholes and the erecting of the enclosures. 

Security and Maintenance

Security at the sanctuary is essential. Volunteers will take part in border fence patrol and big cat enclosure patrol with a trained member of staff. This may involve filling in holes created by wild animals and repairing fences.  There may be overnight security watch duties which means sleeping in our watch tower at the sanctuary with one of your fellow volunteers.

Itinerary

Volunteers are split into working groups to ensure variety when carrying out duties, duties rotate daily.

7am	Breakfast
8am	Morning meeting with volunteer co-ordinator to plan the days activities
8.15am	Morning Activities (varies daily)
10.30am	Tea break (depending on activity)
10.45am	Morning Activities (varies daily)
1pm	Lunch and free time
2.30pm	Afternoon Activities (varies daily)
5.30pm	Dinner and free time
7pm	Baboon babysitting duties

Volunteers should be prepared for the daily schedule to change at short notice to meet the needs of the project and animals.
Volunteers need to be ready to take on any tasks that may be required of them.
 
Please remember that the animals are rescued, taken in, cared for and if possible, released into natural habitat again, therefore the variety and number of animals at the sanctuary can change daily. Please be flexible as activities can change due to the needs of the animals and project.

Free Time

During the project, you will have the evenings to relax from approximately 5.30pm, Saturday afternoons from around 4pm and Sundays all day. However, the animals still need to be fed on Sundays!

During your time on this project, you may have the opportunity to enjoy a number of activities such as: a nature walk across the sanctuary, climbing Neudamm mountain or an eco challenge competing in groups against your fellow volunteers, followed by a braai (barbeque) and an overnight sleep out in the field, star gazing and waking up to a fantastic sunrise!

During your free time, there is a small swimming pool available for your use, conveniently located by the volunteer accommodation and a lawn area for you to relax on in the sun Occasionally the volunteers play football against the San Bushman workers. There will be the opportunity for a small group of volunteers to head into Windhoek on Sundays to pick up some supplies, though this cannot be guaranteed.

Optional Extra Activities

Paintballing and abseiling may take place during your time at the sanctuary (approx £25)

Sunday transfer to Windhoek – where you can visit the mall and have a leisurely lunch at the famous Jo’s Beerhouse. Please note that volunteers may be needed to look after animals on a Sunday from time to time.  (approx £16)

Staying at our guest lodge – why not treat yourself to a bit of luxury during your time on the project. You can book a 1 or 2 nights stay at the Lodge at a special volunteer rate, Here you can relax with a drink, take a swim in the pool and enjoy the tranquil and stunning surroundings. You can organise your stay once you reach the project (approx £50pppn)

Volunteer evening at the lodge where you can socialise, enjoy a drink at the bar and take in the stunning views across the African veld – occasionally this is offered as a volunteer a buffet dinner and transfer (approx £13).

Sunday lunch at the lodge and spend the afternoon relaxing by the pool with a cool drink (approx £15)

"What can I say about the Namibia Wildlife Sanctuary that will really give a picture of the most memorable and enjoyable time I spent there?  For a start, all the staff are extra friendly, helpful - and make you feel welcome from the moment you arrive to the sad day when you have to leave. The feeding of, and caring for the animals are everyday jobs that need to be done, spending time with the baboons were some of my favourite times there. Then there’s the more labour intensive work that needs doing, fixing of enclosures, levelling surrounding roads, etc - it all helps with the upkeep and running of the project for the welfare of the various animals that make up the sanctuary. Finishing off  building a shaded area for the horse enclosure, building and erecting a play/swing area for the baboon enclosure, are both projects that I was lucky enough to have played a small part in, and in doing so give you a real sense of achievement. The food is more than satisfactory, the facilities there are more than adequate, in fact, I’m trying hard to think of anything I didn’t truly love about my time on the project! I loved it there so much in fact, that after my initial four weeks there (which is all I had booked for), I returned after only two weeks on my next placement, cutting it short by two weeks, so that I could spend my final fortnight in Namibia, back at the sanctuary. It’s a family, and I am privileged to say that I was made to feel a special part of it - as I’m sure everyone who has visited would say!"

Graham Litchfield 2008

Support

Support and advice is available from the Project Managers whilst on the placement and from the UK Amanzi Travel Team.
Find out more about Amanzi Travel support

Orientation

A comprehensive information pack will be sent to volunteers upon booking their placement and further advice and information will be provided via telephone and email before departure. An orientation will be provided on arrival at the project from the project coordinator including information on the current status of the projects and familiarisation with the local surroundings.

Accommodation and Meals

Comfortable and clean shared accommodation including three meals a day is provided. Rooms are single sex and generally have three volunteers per room.

Getting There

Volunteers should fly  into Windhoek International Airport where they will be met on arrival and transferred to the project (approximately 45 minutes).  

(There may be a number of ways to reach the destination airport - for further information or advice please contact Amanzi Travel)

Fees

What is included

• A contribution to the project itself including funding for items such as building materials, food, animal medications
• Transfers to and from the Windhoek International Airport or Windhoek City
• Full orientation and support from the project managers for the duration of your project
• Accommodation and meals as indicated above

What is excluded

• Return flights to Windhoek International Airport
• Travel insurance to include cover for repatriation
• Visas (if required) 
• Use of internet and telephone
• Soft drinks, wines and spirits