Desert Elephant Project
Join thousands of volunteers on affordable volunteer Peru programs helping to change the world one family at a time
DESERT ELEPHANT (Namibia)
- Guarantee best price – starts $X
- pay fee directly to project
- Help to preserve desert elephant of Africa
- Local cultural immersion, travel, and experience of life time
This project is about making a difference in the conservation of desert elephants. It emphasizes conserving the desert elephants and ensuring the safety and security for the communities who live with the local herds. It is a hands-on conservation project and the volunteers are the most crucial elements in the conservation work. It is back to basic living, cooking over a camp fire, sleeping under the stars, and all within one of the world's most beautiful deserts. You will truly experience the wilderness and it's highly unlikely you will see any tourists during your time at this project. You get to witness and observe elephants in their natural habitat and learn a lot about these rare species of pachyderms with knowledgeable and highly experienced project managers.
Goal of project
This project is part of a long-term initiative. It targets towards finding solutions to the ever-growing problem of facilitating the peaceful co-habitation between subsistence farmers, and the desert adapted elephants. This is reached through research, education and development. The project currently focuses on creating additional water points for elephants, the building of protective structures and walls near communal water, teaching the farmers skills to financially benefit through tourism, assisting them with various work during the process, tracking and researching the movement of elephants and distributing and compiling identikits on individual elephants and herds.
Volunteer responsibilities
Building:
Volunteers will spending their whole week in the local farm or homestead, where they will be building protective walls around water sources for elephants or building water points (alternative) for them. They can do the same building work in the areas where black rhinos have been newly released.
Elephant Patrol:
Volunteers will also be getting indulged in elephant patrolling activities for a week. They will be accompanying the trackers for a vehicle based patrol, tracking local herds of desert elephants. The volunteers can take this week as a reward for the dedication and effort made towards the construction and building work. They will be tracking elephants, recording their data of births, deaths and new elephants, locate and identify their positions with GPS system and take notes and identify the details of every elephant. This activity requires volunteers to be on field for 4days and 3nights, after which they will get back to base camp before leaving for home.
Fees and Dates:
Global Crossroad provides volunteer programs at the lowest prices possible. Global Crossroad gives you the assurance that you will save a lot of money with our programs, because we do not promote the idea of volunteers spending thousands of dollars just to volunteer for a week. We also try our best in keeping our transactions transparent for volunteers to know and ensure that their fees are being used in the right way possible.
Except our registration fee of $299, our fees are as affordable as $950. The detailed fee structure of the Horse Project is as follows:
- Weeks
- 1 Week
- 2 Week
- 3 Week
- 4 Week
- 5 Week
- 6 Week
- 7 Week
- 8 Week
- Extra Per Week
- Program Fee US$
- N/A
- $940
- N/A
- $1765
- N/A
- $2510
- N/A
- $3160
- $855
Dates: 1st and 3rd Monday of each month- 2024
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- 2024
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- 1 January
- 15 January
- 5 February
- 19 February
- 4 March
- 18 March
- 1 April
- 15 April
- 6 May
- 20 May
- 3 June
- 17 June
- 1 July
- 15 July
- 5 August
- 19 August
- 2 September
- 16 September
- 7 October
- 21 October
- 4 November
- 18 November
- 2 December
- 16 December
Remember that volunteers need to be in Swakopmund the day before the transfer to the project (i.e. latest by the Sunday), and should book their departure flight for the day after the transfer back to Swakopmund (i.e. a Saturday) onwards.
room / food
A mobile base camp is set up at each project site. The first week, volunteers are accommodated in 2 main tents and also have the option of sleeping under the stars. Washing facilities are limited, but a "bushman" shower may be made available if there is a water dam at the camp site. Toilet facilities will be in the form of long drops (enclosed and private). While on patrol (during the second week), volunteers sleep under the stars on bedrolls with mosquito nets. Toilets and showers are not available during this week. Volunteers can take turns in preparing the meals. All meals will be made over the open fire and will be eaten together, around the camp-fire.
The project supplies basic but balanced meal options with adequate vegetarian options also available.
Examples of Meals are:
Breakfast – cereal (oats or porridge), toast, and fruit.
Lunch – spaghetti with pasta sauce, bread and a fruit.
Dinner - roast chicken, Thai curry or similar.
Free time/what volunteer can do in free time
Since this project is located in a remote area, volunteers are limited to spending their free time in camp. Free time can be used for washing clothes, talking and relaxing around camp with your fellow volunteers, and listening to the sounds of Africa. It is advisable to take a book (or two), MP3 players, and maybe even one or two games, which you can use to pass the time and get to know the other volunteers even better. In Swakopmund, there are several optional activities available, which you may want to experience either before or after your volunteer experience.
Major FAQ
- Where do I need to fly?
- When does the project begin?
- What vaccinations do I need?
- How can I communicate with family?
- How safe is this project?
- Will there be someone to guide/supervise us?
- Will there be other volunteers?
- Any other important information to consider?
Volunteers need to have an average degree of fitness, as most of the work is manual, and volunteers could spend a lot of time in high temperatures on foot. A bit of training beforehand could make your time more comfortable. But don't worry – everyone is capable, and the project managers will be there for you in every step of the way. The volunteer groups are always a mix of ages and everyone works together as a team doing as much as they are able. You need to be able to speak and understand English.
Volunteers need to be in Swakopmund at the latest on Sunday before the group departs for camp on Monday. Volunteers have the option of flying to Walvis Bay, and catching a connecting shuttle to the backpackers lodge in Swakopmund.
Alternatively, volunteers can fly to Windhoek, and take either a shuttle or bus from Windhoek to Swakopmund. For those flying to Windhoek, the daily shuttle departs from Windhoek at 13H30, which means that if you arrive in Windhoek earlier enough, you can catch the shuttle later the same day, and be in Swakopmund by evening. For those electing to travel by bus (or if you arrive after 13H30, and want to take the shuttle), it would mean having to stay overnight in Windhoek first, before taking the bus (or the next shuttle) the following day. Although it may work out slightly cheaper traveling via Windhoek, the quicker option would be via Walvis Bay. When booking your return trip from Swakopmund, please be aware that the group will only get back to Swakopmund at around 14H00 on a Friday afternoon. It is advisable to instead book your return trip for Saturday, as the shuttle departs from Swakopmund at 07H00, and the groups tend to dine out at a local restaurant on Friday night when they return to Swakopmund (and it would be a pity to miss out on this).