Lost your job because of the recession? Not sure what you want to do with your life? Can’t afford a holiday because of the economic crisis? Think no further…

Apply now to be Volunteer assistant manager at a resort in South Thailand.

The Lifelong Learning Foundation is a non-profit community based organization committed to nature conservation and local welfare activities. We are currently looking for several volunteers from any part of the world to help us train locals in the following areas:

Duties:

1. Teach local community staff proper accounting, management & marketing procedures

2. Instill honesty and integrity in the workplace

3. Coach locals on good environmental practices

4. Teach basic English to the local staff

Lead by being a good example

We are looking for someone who is committed to a long term learning process, patient, willing to learn new skills and apply them in teaching the locals, honest and trustworthy, creative, innovative and proactive.

Placement: minimum 1 month – 6 months maximum starting October 2009. Applications open all year round. Location placement based on a first come, first serve basis. For those staying more than one month, possibility of rotating locations within the pilot training sites.  Individual and serious applicants only.  No age limit.

Note: There is no payment for working at the pilot training site.

Application fee: 5000 Baht non-refundable (to cover orientation expenses). To be paid upon acceptance of the selected candidate.

In return:

1. Support a charitable cause by just donating your time

2. Enjoy a working holiday in South Thailand at one of our pilot sites

3. Meet interesting local people and learn more about their near extinct culture

4. Meet and interact with tourists from all over the world

5. Free food, board and tours at the site

+ Many other benefits …

Information on our Foundation and other project activities: www.lifelong-learning.org

Enquiries:  lifelonglearning@trangsea.com

Alliance is the leading magazine for philanthropy and social investment worldwide. It provides news and analysis of what’s happening in the philanthropy and social investment sectors across the world. It also acts as a forum for exchange of ideas and experiences among practitioners. As well as news and conference reports, articles, book reviews and opinion columns, each issue has a special in-depth feature on some key aspect of philanthropy and social investment, with contributors from around the world and expert guest editors.

As part of our service to subscribers we provide a monthly eBulletin which offers a roundup of the latest news and developments. We wanted to ensure that this eBulletin was as attractive to our readers as possible and so we asked The Ranovsky Foundation to design a banner for the header of our eBulletin.

The pro bono design project was great news for us as a registered charity, once we had outlined a brief the process has been extremely smooth with various designs for us to choose from and professional and prompt communications throughout. We are very happy with the end product and will be using it in all our future bulletins.

Daktari is a registered non-profit company located in the Limpopo Province, close to the town of Hoedspruit. It is a wildlife orphanage where the objective is to look after orphaned wild animal who cannot be rehabilitated and use them as a medium to inspire and educate local underprivileged children to care for their environment.

Every Monday we welcome a new group of 8 local under-privileged children for a week and give them the opportunity to discover, learn and become passionate about wildlife and conservation, their heritage. We also supplement their school curriculum in English, maths, sciences, geography, life skills and social issues.

Our goal is to enable today’s local underprivileged children to eventually be able to secure good employment in nature reserves, thereby improving their future quality of life.

To survive, we have a volunteer programme. We have people from overseas mainly who come to volunteer. They pay for their stay which help us toward our running cost.

We are looking for somebody who could make a short video of the volunteer programme that we could put on our website to market it more efficiently. Obviously the person who would have these competences would have to spend a few days here on site to do some filming.

The Vervet Monkey Rehabilitation Centre was established by Dawn and Rodney, a couple that have been working with monkeys for over 19 years. Besides monkeys, they also take care of ducks, geese, cats, dogs, and any other wildlife. Their home is Khobotho Ranch, situated deep within ”Zulu” country on a 3000 acre game reserve neighboring a rural community where traditional Zulu huts are still the norm. This nature reserve is surrounded by a heavily wooded series of hills, cliffs and valleys mainly of virgin bush. The reserve includes a stone built, thatched bush camp that sleeps up to 12, where there are many species of wild animals to be seen. As a volunteer, you become a part of this big family, and you are required to assist with preparing feeds, hand-rearing infant monkeys (if and when necessary), feeding, cleaning and many other tasks in and around the centre.

The centre is unique in its approach to rehabilitation and over the years they have had great results, seeing many vervet monkeys return to the wild. The centre rescues orphaned and injured vervet monkeys (some only a few hours old) and with care and correct management. When they have healed or reached maturity, they are released back into their known territory or on site.

Some of the rescued monkeys live on the property as a free troop by choice. They are able to interact with the vervets in the enclosures. Some of these are unreleasable monkeys that can never survive in the wild due to previous injuries, others are infants waiting to be released. Wild troops that live outside the centre are encouraged to visit the centre’s free troop. Over time these troops get to know each other, allowing for easier integration.

Infant vervets need a great deal of love, attention and stimulation. Feeding takes place every four hours throughout the day and in some cases throughout the night. When they are older, they spend their days in their outside enclosure, and are brought indoors overnight until they reach plus minus 7 months, at which time they are mature enough to remain outside permanently with the older monkeys. The centre does not have infants all year round, and most of the infants that are cared for by the centre are orphans, their mothers having been killed one way or the other.

There are many other things to do, for example maintenance work, assisting with house chores, fence repairs, snare patrols, game counts etc. Volunteers must be willing to muck in with daily life at the centre, and not be afraid to get their hands dirty. Monkeys are wild animals, so there are no guarantees that you won’t get a nip or two (but no life-threatening bites!).Remember that monkeys DO NOT carry rabies!

There are also opportunities for volunteers during school terms to interact with rural children on a cultural and educational level by assisting the teachers. This can also include maintenance, painting, repairing fences, environmental and recycling education, etc. Many of the children walk long distances to get to and from school, they and the teaching staff look forward to meeting volunteers from overseas.

There are many exciting opportunities for volunteers; overnight stays at our bush camp, hiking trails, visits and overnight stays with traditional Zulu families and “live like a Zulu” experience. You can be sure of a truly memorable African experience without the usual luxuries of city living.

The centre also encourages volunteers to visit other areas of KwaZulu-Natal, Tours can be organized for them. N.B.Tours etc are to the volunteers own account: For example trips to Hluhluwe gamepark to see the Big 5 and many other species of game, visits to St Lucia wetlands it isa world heritage site, underwater dives, hiking in the Drakensberg, visit the Battlefields or go to Durban’s Shaka land, Seaworld, educational tour to the Shark Research Centre etc We encourage our volunteers to see as much as possible of our beautiful country.

All inter country transport are to the volunteers own account, excepting collection and delivery to and from Mooi River, which is on the main Johannesburg/Durban route: Accommodation and home cooked meals are provided along with a laundry service. The nearest town is Greytown, 12 kms away where Internet, shops, restaurants, banks, chemist, medical facilities etc are available. Twice weekly trips are arranged to pick up supplies.

These thoroughly rewarding projects will suit all volunteers with an interest in wildlife, zoology, veterinary sciences, natural history, environmental issues, study of the local Zulu traditions, and South African history.

Requirements for volunteers; no skills needed, apart from a great love of animals both wild and domestic, the environment and not afraid of getting their hands dirty!