Twala Trust Animal Sanctuary Volunteer Program - Zimbabwe

You will want to spend more time here than you anticipate. Every volunteer I spoke to regretted not booking more time. Personally, I booked for a month and was somewhat apprehensive it might be too long - I finally left after 2.5 months! Give yourself two weeks - at the very least and be prepared for lots of tears when you eventually have to leave!

Volunteers start every morning at 6.30 am with preparing food for all the animals. It usually takes about 2 hrs to prep all the food and then distribute.

We then bring the birds outside to their day enclosures. We're usually greeted with loud 'HELLO' from the cockatoos! We then usually have an hour to have some breakfast before cleaning out some bird enclosures, treating the dogs for flystrike before the daily dog walk. Each day I promised myself that it would be a calming and meditative task but walking 17 dogs can never be that!

We usually then had lunch - always something delicious! After lunch, tasks varied and could include habitat enrichment, spending some extra time with the animals that really appreciated human contact, preparing for the weekly dog clinic (the clinic feeds and provides free vet care to approx. 300 dogs each week). There was then the afternoon food prep time, making sure every one of the 400 animals onsite were fed and happy before finishing up for the day.

My biggest concern was around being in Zimbabwe itself and whether the political situation was secure since they had just had elections. However, on arriving there I found that Zimbabweans are a lovely and welcoming people. I must add that the care given to me by Twala staff when out and about meant I always felt extremely safe.

Many volunteers come to the Twala Trust as vet or pre-vet students. When they return having progressed in or completed their studies, that is very rewarding. We presently have a qualified vet nurse who first came to Twala as a teenager, with no idea of what she wanted to do. She now has a degree in veterinary nursing and is using her skills to help various animal rescue organizations as she travels around the world.

The vet programme that we offer to pre-vet and vet students, and to anyone studying animal sciences is a fantastic way to get genuine hands-on experience in a unique environment.

We have so many different species at Twala, we do all our own vet work as well as running a free community vet clinic for animals from low-income rural households, and you won't find a more comprehensive and real experience anywhere else. The programme is small, a maximum of 6 volunteers at a time, so volunteers get to participate in a meaningful way in our work.

Our focus is on providing the best quality of life possible to an enormous variety of species. The attention to detail, the belief that every life matters and that it is always worth trying to save a life makes our work environment very positive. I am enormously proud of what we have achieved, against some pretty big odds, and that despite many challenges we have always maintained our ethics. Animal welfare is the most important factor in what we do.

Ethics are extremely important. What you see on social media about our work is what actually happens on the ground. We are responsible for the welfare of a great many animals and we take that very seriously. Working together as a team is vital, as is attention to detail in every aspect. We put the animals' welfare first, and it shows. We appreciate our staff, volunteers and supporters and that also show. We would not be able to do what we do without them.