When you volunteer at The Hidden Forest Wildlife Sanctuary, we try to tailor your placement, wherever possible, to your skills, interests and experience. We particularly welcome volunteers who are enthusiastic, hard working and will to get involved in a range of activities.
It takes a lot to run a sanctuary and volunteers may help out with any of the following general duties::
- Welcoming visitors to the sanctuary;
- Cleaning and stocking feeding stations around the The Hidden Forest Wildlife Sanctuary forest;
- Maintaining the forest and surrounding areas, keeping them clear of litter;
- Planting indigenous trees and shrubs at the reception site and/or forest;
- Removing alien vegetation in the forest;
- Assisting with marketing;
- Explaining sanctuary rules to visitors;
- Supervising media visits;
- Helping with food preparation in the monkey kitchen;
- Helping with general maintenance, cleaning walkways and bridges;
- Helping out in the restaurant and/or souvenir shop.
In addition to the general duties, volunteers are welcome to train to be a Sanctuary Guide or to volunteer their time supporting our marketing efforts.
We also welcome volunteers with specialist skills and experience who can lead or become involved in a number of different projects or help us with those wish list items that we never quite make it to. This includes, in particular, photography and film-making, those with experience in fundraising or applying for grants, IT specialists and web designers, social media experts, people with an interest or skills in journalism, marketing or public relations and people with trade experience, whether it be electrics, plumbing, carpentry etc., there's always lots ot do to maintain our buildings and forest and even at the volunteer house.
General qualifications and/or experience needed:
No specific qualifications are required to volunteer at our sanctuary. The only requirements are that you can speak English, have a genuine interest in primates and other wildlife and are willing to get involved.
If you are currently studying a related discipline or have recently graduated and are looking for a more vocational internship, please contact Global Work Experience to discuss internship opportunities at The Hidden Forest Wildlife Sanctuary.
Costs
When you volunteer at The Hidden Forest Wildlife Sanctuary, you pay only for your accommodation package. You can find more information about what's included on our Volunteer Accommodation page.
Sanctuary Guide
The Hidden Forest Wildlife Sanctuary funds itself through revenues from visitors who join guided educational walking tours in our forest, which is home to a variety of primate species who roam freely through our 23-hectare forest sanctuary.
The tours are for around one hour (usually a little more as none of us are in a hurry to leave the forest) and leave our visitors with general primate knowledge, information about each of the primate species in our sanctuary and an understanding that primates do not make good pets but are happier in the trees, forests and wild habitats with peers of their own species. We also teach visitors about the idigenous flora and fauna of the forest.
Tours are primarily conducted in English although if you are not a native English speaker you may also be asked to conduct tours in your own language if we have overseas visitors.
Volunteers wanting to work as Sanctuary Guides must stay for a minimum of 4 weeks to ensure there is enough time for them to be fully trained.
Marketing / Media Volunteers
The Hidden Forest Wildlife Sanctuary is still a relatively new sanctuary and therefore there are still lots of opportunities to spread the word about the work we do and the experience guests can have visiting us. Our Marketing / Media Volunteers can be involved in a range of activities depending on their skills and experience. This can include, but is not limited to:
- photography and film-making
- content creation for our website and social media platforms
- creating blogs and/or newspaper articles;
- distributing brochures
- attending marketing shows and/or conferences
- presenting to schools
- helping with media tours in the forest
- creating new marketing material
Contact our Volunteer Coordinator, for more information or to check availability.
Or simply download and complete the application form below and email it, along with your CV and a signed copy of the Sanctuary Rules, to volunteer@hiddenforest.co.za.
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