AN
ELEPHANT EXPERIENCE IN SRI LANKA'S MOST FAMOUS ELEPHANTORPHANAGE, HOME TO RETIRED, ABUSED OR ORPHANED ELEPHANTS
You'll have a marvelous experience working with these
regal animals and the daily highlight is the walk from the Orphanage
down to the river to bathe the elephants. It's amazing to watch an
entire herd splashing around and rolling in the river ... just feet in
front of you!
ABOUT THE PROJECT
AND THE ORPHANAGE: TheElephant Orphanage
is a sanctuary for rescued, injured or abused
elephants and attracts visitors from all over the world to view these
magnificent animals. Around 70 elephants have found homes at Pinnawala,
including some small babies who have been born into the herd.
The Orphanage is reputedly one of the largest, if
not the largest,
centres of its kind in the world, with one of the most successful captive
breeding programmes for Asian elephants.
Work Responsibilities: Working hours are quite short and you certainly won't be overloaded with
work, so you'll have plenty of time to sightsee and explore.
Some elephants are overly large or have not been tamed or
trained to a satisfactory level, whereby it is possible to safely have full
hands-on contact.
The majority of volunteer work deals more with the
day-to-day aspects of running the orphanage, rather than more specialised
research or veterinary based work, although you will have the opportunity to do
some hands-on work
Your
main duties will be:
Mucking out the elephant
enclosures in the morning (this is hard, muddy work!)
Participating in bathing
some of the smaller elephants.
While the mahouts are bathing the
larger elephants, you will be able to relax by the river, chat to the
mahouts and watch the elephants play and interact with humans and each
other. This is an absolutely beautiful sight and being around these serene
animals in such a beautiful setting can have a very calming effect!
There may also be the opportunity to do
other things around the orphanage, however this is subject the amount of work
available at the orphanage at the time of your project. See the
feedback page for more information
about the kind of work you are likely to be taking part in!
You can also combine this project
with a teaching project.
"Just
wanted to drop you a line as my project in Sri
Lanka comes to end to tell you that I have had thebest time of my life and the project has been amazing,
both the teaching and the elephant orphanage. It
hasbeen a truly amazing experience." David Constable
"I
wanted to end this year by thanking you, and all at Travellers,
for making this year so special. As you know, my passion for elephants runs
very deep and has done for as long as I can
remember, and you were able to help me make my lifelong dream come true, and
for that I am so eternally grateful."
Travellers Volunteer, Jo 'The Elephant Lady' Harris
NEWS - Welcome to the World!:
Forty-sixth
elephant cub born in Sri Lanka elephant orphanage is named Tuesday, September 4, 2007, 13:39 GMT, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
The 46th elephant cub born in Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage in Sri Lanka
recently was ceremoniously named today as Vidula. The elephant cub received
the name after a children’s radio channel initiated by the Sri Lanka
Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) recently. The elephant cub got the name
Vidula on the request of the pioneer of the radio channel, Sunil Sarath
Perera, the Director General of SLBC.
Vidula was born to Sapumalee last week. He is the 82nd member of the
elephant family in captivity at the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage.
Washing an elephant in the river - definitely one of
Life's Top Ten things to do!
ACCOMMODATION and SUPPORT & BACKUP:
You will live in a lovely
house in the nearby town of Kegalle. The house is
typical of the Sri Lankan style and you will have all necessary facilities such
as a washing machine and a comfortable communal living
area to socialise in. There is a TV and DVD player
currently on site (Sri Lanka is a great place to buy DVD’s, costing about
a pound to buy in the cities of Colombo and Kandy).
Food and Transport A live-in chef will cook all your meals for you
and our current volunteers say that the food is delicious!! Transport will be
provided for the 25-30-minute journey to
and from the Pinawala Elephant Orphanage.
You will be met at
Colombo airport and taken, usually by car, to Kegalle. You will have the same high level
of support provided in all our programmes.
You can also combine a one-month placement
in the Elephant Orphanage with two months in a teaching placement in Ja-Ela -
this way you get the best of both worlds!
To read about the extensiveSupport & Backup
we provide in our countries, please
click here.
Communication There are internet facilities in Kegalle during the day. There is
also a phone in the house that your family and
friends can call you on. With a phone card that you
can buy locally, you can make international calls
home.
Kegalle During the day Kegalle bustles with people and street markets. The evenings
are quiet with the Sri Lankan culture favouring early mornings and early
nights. There are always a few volunteers on this placement
together, so there is a very sociable atmosphere in the house. However,
do keep the quietness in mind and be prepared for slow-paced
evenings.
Support We have Travellers staff in Sri Lanka to give you help
and support during your placemen. If you’re unfortunate enough to fall
ill at any time, our local representative Madusha – who is based in Pinawala
- will be there to help
you and, of course, our
Sri Lanka Manager, Roshan Perera, will immediately respond to any request from
you for assistance.
Remember, though, Sri Lanka is hot and humid
so endurance and stamina will be a requirement for this facility!!
Climate: In the lowlands the climate is typically
tropical with an average temperature of 27OC in Colombo. In
the higher elevations it can be quite cool with temperatures going down to 16OC
at an altitude of nearly 2,000 metres. Bright, sunny warm days are the rule and
are common even during the height of the monsoon - climatically Sri Lanka has no
off-season.
If you’d like us to arrange a
placement for you on this programme, please fill in the application
form as soon as possible because it is a very popular choice and
fills up extremely quickly! For prices,
please see below.
"Pinawala is great. YesterdayI spent
ages in the river
helping throw water at the elephants (though I also got
quite a lot thrown at
me!) and today I got to
play with the babies!" Jennifer Rowe
MORE NEWS - Sri
Lanka elephant population grew within last 50 years Tuesday, September 18, 2007, 13:55 GMT, ColomboPage News Desk,
Sri Lanka.
The Colombo University Senior Professor on Ecology Sarath Kotagama says that
through the estimates in the past 100 years and the records on man – elephant
conflicts, he can prove that the country’s elephant population grew despite the
popular belief of decline. He points out that the elephant population was less
than 1,000 according to 1953 estimations. The 1973 estimates accounted the
elephant population between 1600 – 2200. According to an estimate conducted by
Dr. Nandana Athapattu and Mangala Silva in 1993, the elephant population was
between 3,000 and 4,000.
According to current figures, 1,500 elephants live in Northwestern wildlife
zone. There are 300 elephants in Udawalawe and 400 in Minneriya. In addition,
350 elephants were chased to Lunugamwehera in the Walawe wild elephant
management operation. Scientists point out that there are around 1500 more
elephants in other areas.
The majority of the elephants live in wetlands, discarded cultivation lands and
small jungles where their natural food, short shrubs are found in abandon.
Around 50% of the elephants are believed to live outside the national parks.
TRAVEL:
You have the option to arrange your
own flights or we can assist you with your flight arrangements. If you would
like us to do this for you, we will liaise with you regarding available flights
and dates to suit you. All arrangements for your flight bookings/payments will
be fulfilled by Murray Rogers Travel Ltd., ATOL No. 6856. (Read more about Murray Rogers Travel Ltd.)
Where possible, we arrange for two
or more people to travel on the same flight and we will let you have the names
and telephone numbers of other volunteers on your flight, so that you can chat
to each other or even meet up before leaving for your placement.
Where possible, all flights we
arrange for you have changeable return tickets because many of our volunteers
choose to extend their stay once they are in their destination country.
Changeable return tickets enable you to do so, within the limits of your visa
and the level of your air ticket, of course. If you choose to book your own
flights, you should endeavour to get a changeable ticket. We meet you at the
airport regardless of whether you make your own travel arrangements or not.
You will fly into Sri Lanka
where you'll be met at Colombo Airport by our Sri Lanka Manager, Roshan Perera, and taken to your
placement. Roshan will make you feel welcome from the first moment you
meet; he is a delightful person, laid back yet extremely efficient, and has
become a friend-for-life to many of our volunteers!
VISAS:. You don't need a visa for your first month in Sri Lanka
and our local manager will arrange for a visa for the rest of your stay - we
make the process very easy for you.
We can also arrange your flight
dates to give you additional time at the end of your project for travelling
around and sightseeing - this is a fascinating and wondrous country!
Waiting to take the elephants back after their trip to the
river to bathe
PRICES:
To see the Prices of this project and all
our other projects in Sri Lanka, please
click here
Prices
include
Food & accommodation while on your project,
2 T-shirts, if required
for your project
All support and backup
during your programme
Meeting you at the
nearest airport, where appropriate, but exclude international travel.
.
+44 01903 502595
