Work In a Turtle Conservation Project in Sri Lanka

Project At A Glance

Location: Kosgoda (close to Galle) Arrival point: Colombo End Point: Colombo Duration: 2-12 weeks Hours: 30-40 hours per week Food: Local meals (3 times a day) Room: Host family, shared housing or motel Date: First and Third Monday of each month

Project Summary

Located in Kosgoda (15 miles south of Galle), our Sri Lanka Turtle Conservation Project is the ideal program for nature-loving volunteers interested in conservation efforts. This project focuses on protecting and maintaining the sea turtles’ nesting beaches and rescuing eggs to take to the hatchery. Sea turtles natural predators and poachers affect the already low survival rate of eggs/hatchling turtles.

In addition to regular maintenance of the program, the Tsunami disaster of December 2004 resulted in a tragic loss of project support equipment and this particular project is still suffering significant, infrastructural damage. Additionally, the crippled turtle population has continued to decline due to the tsunami’s destruction of coral reefs and ever-increasing marine pollution levels. Volunteers' assistance is urgently needed for different levels of conservation work including monitoring turtle activity, creating informational resources and rebuilding damaged facilities.

Skills/Qualifications Needed

No specific qualifications are required to join the Sri Lanka turtle conservation project. Volunteers need to be physically capable and comfortable spending much of their workday outside. Volunteers should also have a deep love for nature, animals and conservation.

Volunteer Responsibilities

Participants will feed and clean the turtles and their environments. Other activities include monitoring and releasing baby turtles from the hatchery. Volunteers will also monitor turtle egg-laying on the beaches and support the relocating the just-laid eggs to safe nesting areas. Participants will also support the projects turtle statistic database. Volunteer duties also include Tsunami recovery, which includes:

• rebuilding turtle tanks
• repairing visitors' houses
• developing informational resources and tourist souvenirs
• conducting project tours

Room/Food/Supervision

In Sri Lanka, all volunteers stay with well-screened host families (in most situations this is with our in-country coordinator or local staffs). Our host families are socially respected and are well versed in the art of hosting international volunteers. Host families offer a safe home, private rooms (occasionally rooms will be shared with other same-gender volunteers) and shared bathroom facilities with running water and a “local” style toilet. You receive three prepared meals per day. If you will be out of the house during lunch hour, you can request a lunch "to go" that you can take with you or eat out on your own. Host families provide typical meals that are traditional to Sri Lanka. Rooms are shared, as are bathroom and kitchen facilities. For a small additional fee, volunteers can opt to stay in a modest seaside motel. Please note this preference in the initial volunteer application.

Throughout the volunteer project, our local staff stays in contact with volunteers with either face-to-face visits or via email/telephone and volunteers have 24/7 access to our in-country staff. With longer placements, we visit our volunteers every two weeks (when possible) and volunteers are always welcome at the local office. If project placement is local, we request that volunteers stop by the office once a week to keep us posted on how they are doing with their home stay and project. If project placement is very far, then our local staff members maintain communication by either email and/or phone.