African Dawn Bird and Wildlife Sanctaury South Africa

The information available for African Dawn is very misleading. It is not so much an animal sanctuary - more of a petting zoo that you would visit for a day in the UK. It consists mainly of birds which is very disappointing. The staff work hard and are very supportive but there is hardly anything to do in the evenings except play cards or watch old dvd's. You are encouraged to use one taxi firm (the only number available in the pay phone booth)and go on their very expensive day trips (£150 to go to neaby Addo elephant park and Scotia half day safari)on your days off. You are warned about safety issues if you try to find out about alternative transport/taxis. The work is not interesting and very manual when you are required to do "project work" - in our case clearing ground and laying turf
Summary - you are paying a lot of money to work very hard for what is after all a business. We hardly saw any visitors in the two weeks we were there so assume they are making most of their money from naive people such as ourselves who believed they would be making a difference - not just lining someones pocket.

I can't even begin to describe how much my stay at African Dawn meant to me. I'll start by saying that however long you think is long enough, it really isn't. I intended to stay 2 weeks and I was there a month. African Dawn is absolutely beautiful and the people are incredible. I met some lifelong friends there and learnt some valuable lessons, not only about animal care but also about myself.

A typical day begin at 7am when we get the animals fed. We all stumble sleepily around the prep room and head out onto our routes. Keep an eye on Murray, Fugley and Scraggles - a bite from them is sure to wake you up :) then its breakfast time and finally, list time! Once you've made it through the list of odd jobs, the rest of the morning is yours. Go play with the kittens, walk the dogs, cuddle the bunnies, hang with the monkeys! Be back in the afternoon for afternoon feeds though! Once your done there, it might be off to chicken dishes (it's not that bad, we swear) or clinic where you can help the sick animals. After that your done! Spend the rest of your day lounging at the cabins and making lifelong friends :) our group spent most of our nights watching Disney movies and finger knitting!

African Dawn is an amazingly peaceful place where your stomach hurts from laughing, your face hurts from smiling, your brains full of new things and your heart hurts to leave.

I love African Dawn!

I enjoyed the program a lot, learned a lot and already do recommend it to friends on a volunteer in SA page I made on Facebook, so no lies. I do not win anything with posting it there, so I only post programs I think are really good. Lots of different animals and a great group of people running the place!

A typical day would be starting work at 7am, for the morning feed; usually the plates will be completely prepped and laid out for you (by Sarah/Em/Ali), so you just pick and go. You'll be with someone who knows what they're doing for the first few days, until you get to know the routes. This takes an hour or two, depending on how many volunteers/weather/which route you're doing. Breakfast is about 9 o'clock, then there are some jobs from a daily rota (washing the animal dishes, checking the clinic etc) that get done first, then a jobs list that varies from day to day - this is usually raking enclosures, moving supplies about etc, which might sound boring but you're pretty much always somewhere that animals are, so you get plenty of contact. Then, depending on how quickly you finish your jobs, you might have a bit of a break before lunch from 1 until 2. After lunch is the afternoon feed, which is pretty much the same as the morning only the volunteers help with the prep this time - chopping fruit mainly! Then there are a few afternoon jobs to do but you're usually done by about 4 and then you'll definitely need a shower because you get covered in all sorts throughout the day! Dinner is at 6 and from then on you're free to do whatever you like; there's an entertainment room for the volunteers, with a TV and DVD player and a big log fire and tables and sofas, so you can play cards or just sit and chat. In your free time during the day you can go into most of the enclosures and spend time with the animals but after it gets dark, we stay out of the park because the noise can startle the birds and cause them to fly into the fences or trees - not good!

The animals are an absolute joy to work with. There are a lot of birds (a lot of people seems surprised, so I'll give you a heads up!) but there are also servals, cheetahs, lynx, squirrels, monkeys, buck (deer), as well as tortoises and rabbits that wander all over the park. You can spend time with the servals if Ali/Sarah/Em go with you and meeting the cheetahs is usually kept as a special experience for just before you leave.

Volunteers get two days off a week and there is loads to do! You can go to Jeffrey's Bay, which is the nearest town (about half an hour), and get surfing lessons, go shopping or go to the beach and there are lots of nice cafes etc. or Port Elizabeth, which is about an hours drive, where there's a cinema and a big mall. There are lots of attractions nearby as well, like the Elephant park, endangered cat centre, skydiving and bungee jumping (recommended!) and you can take a day trip to do a safari on a game reserve.

The people working there are incredibly committed and passionate about what they're doing and are always keen to share this with volunteers, so everyone becomes very invested in the project no matter how long you're there for. You get a great sense of achievement from working at African Dawn because you're so involved in the running of the place and you really get to see the difference that you make as a volunteer.

I adored volunteering at African Dawn for 8 weeks. All the staff and other volunteers are exceptionally helpful and friendly.

I am a vegetarian and had no problems with the food they cooked everyday as some of the full-time volunteers are vegetarians and always provided a tasty nutritional meal for lunch and dinner.

Caring for the animals is a great experience whether cutting up the fruit and sorting out the portions for their nutritional needs or cleaning and filling their water and enclousures. So many jobs to help out with, there are too many to mention.

I love African Dawn because I truly believe in their cause for helping injured South African wildlife, no matter how small. Some will be rehabilitated back into the wild but for the ones no longer well enough to survive in the wild they are found a new home in the sanctuary for life.

Most of the animals are socialable and love to come over and say hello. There are so many animals of all shapes and sizes from chickens, geese, small birds, parrots, birds of prey, emus, Marge the adorable Ostrich. Kudo's, meerkats, marmosets, spider monkeys, Lynx, Servals, Duikers, wallabys, cheetahs and many more. They all have such different personalities and you will learn to love all of them for their strange and wonderful habbits.

African Dawn is like a second home for me and I highly recommend this sanctuary. I have plans to go back at the end of this year and will definatly be staying for longer next time :)

The first time I went to African Dawn was in Jan 2010 with a friend of mine. We really had no idea what we were signing ourselves up for; but the experience was so fantastic, 2 weeks were not long enough. I ended up extending my stay to 1 month but I still remember vividly how much I didnt want to leave. The tears were proof!

I returned to African Dawn in June 2010 with my stay duration unknown and ended up being there until December. The guys who work there; Percy, Janey, Ali, Sarah, Claire, Sticks, Babese and Ouma became my family and are always there for a good laugh, an Afrikaans lesson and meat fight.

The animals at African Dawn are the heart and sole of the program. Whether it was attempting to mount Fabio the Kudu, breaking up domestic violence between the Black Swans or trying to clean the Meerkats enclosure without feeling the wrath of Stumpy, the animals are essentially, what makes your time so fantastic. Volunteers who stay longer than a few weeks get the opportunity to become surrogate parents to injured and orphaned animals; Arthur and Annie, two tiny Grysbok babies were my pride and joy and nothing made me happier each morning to wake up at 7am to bottle feed and stimulate!

Volunteering at African Dawn is not easy, but it is the most wonderful and rewarding experience I could have asked for. It is a beautiful place, with a well run volunteer program and its definitely worth the visit.

African Dawn is without a doubt the most incredible, life altering, simply amazing place. Situated just out of Jeffrey's Bay it really feels like you have your own corner of the world. Waking up to the chatter of animals and the usually beautiful weather, you only have to look out the window to see animals but about 100 metres late and you are in the main farm area. Here we prepare food (for animals and humans alike) and set off on the morning feed. If you are doing main aviary you will be in for a suprise when Petey the pidgeon will no doubt come flying at your head, of hand if you hold it up high enough. Or if you go on male wallaby route and you get to go in with the marmoset monkey boy, he was hand reared and as a result loves climbng all over you - but carefull he's adventourous and loves climbing down your shirt or even in your mouth!!
After morning feed there is our breakfast which is usually cereal/toast etc but there is always eggs to be eaten so eat eggs every day! Scrambled eggs on toast with cheese was my favourite, gave me plenty of energy for a busy day.
Then out comes the list, there is a list of to-do's ranging from caring for the sick/injured animals, feeding the cows with left overs, fixing a broken enclosue fence, patching up escape artists holes to the worst dun dun duunnn! Chicken Dishes!! Chicken dishes is basically washing up all the plates/bowls used in food prep that morning. Although its a smelly job and takes a while, Chicken Dishes was actually quite fun, take your ipod speakers and have a mini 'chicken dishes' party with your partner, Its also a really good time to get to know your fellow volunteers. I made really close friends this way.
After all those jobs are done its time for lunch, usually toasted cheese and ham sandwhiches or left overs from dinner if there was any. Lunch is supplied but its nice to offer help if you have free time, not only then do you get to choose what you get before anyone else does, but it gives you time to talk to Sarah or whoever is making lunch. Once again this is good! You get to make friends like this!
aftr the humans are fed and watered ;) its time for afternoon feeds, this is the same routine as morning feeds only some animals will/will not be included because they are nocturnal or only need one feed a day.
When that is finished one person will check its all finshed and no cages were left unlocked. Also Chicken Dishes must be done again. Chicken Dishes in the afternoon was always a good time because when the other volunteers were finished they wouls come and chat.
When all jobs were finished you get free time of something like 2-3 hours? or less depending on what jobs you have etc (this could be wrong I can't really remember when we finished)
During this time normally you shower first because you will smell bad, of BO of animal smell and sometimes poo or whatever. But don't be fooled its a good smell, it doesn't smell good, but it makes you feel good. If you smell you have done a hard days work - GOOD JOB!

Dinner is usually around 6ish? I think? once again my mind fools me. but anyway it is always good hearty food, you may think in the beginning this is too much food or not ''healthy'' enough as it is usually alot of carbs but you will need it and mark my words you will most likely still loose weight/gain muscle tone. I ate like a champion and still lost 10 kilos.

after dinner is more free time until you decide when to go to bed, in the beginning you will want to stay up talking etc but by about week 3 you will be so knackered that you will be happy to be asleep by 8pm. Especially if you are doing morning aviary (just doing water and a few etxra things before normal morning feed starts)

Volunteers get 2 days off out of 7, and these days are rostered with other volunteers (unless there is not enough vol's) on these days you can go into Jeffries Bay and go shopping, the beach or horseriding on the beach just for a start. NB if you go into Jeffries Bay PLEASE go to The Mexican for lunch/dinner its an awesome mexican style resturant with delicious cocktails. Very yummy what I wouldnt give to go there again!

Also you can venture further away to Port Elizabeth or Knysna etc and there is always the Highest Bungy Jump in the world!!
There is a huge list of places you should go on your days off and i would recommend them all especially going to Schotia National Park and Addo Elephant Park. There is tour that takes you to both in one day I think for somewhere around 800 Rand? Gosh I have no idea so don't qoute me on that, but also If you call them you can arrange to volunteer for them in exchange for a guided tour, I would definatley recommend that I did both tours because I had friends who wanted to go and I made up the numbers so Im glad I did both but if you are low on cash or want a deeper experiance ask if they are still doing the volunteering one, because you get to stay the night and wake up to lions roaring and rhinos/wild boar at your door.

Well anyway thats a day in the life of an African Dawn Volunteer, I hope I have given you enough information to make your decision but before you do, know this; If you choose to go to African Dawn YOU WILL have an amazing experiance, YOU WILL make friends that last and YOU WILL want to share your story with others to make them go aswell!!
SO do it!!

When I visited African Dawn, I was in my last year of high school in the U.S., and I was grappling with the desire to help the world and discover myself. I spent two weeks at African Dawn, but I never wanted to leave. Even in the short time I was there, it felt like home to me. I met the most amazing people and animals in the whole world, I was able to experience the kind of hands-on animal car work that I have always wanted to do, and I was able to participate in something that helps the world in a truly beautiful way.
The work is hard, but rewarding, and the people are amazing. The sky is huge, and the surroundings are perfect. I had so many life changing experiences while I was there... I'll never forget it, and I am so thankful to have had it in my life.