Alix comes from Belgium, she is 18 years old and stayed 2 weeks at Daktari.

“I was looking for an organisation that would allowed me to work with animals. DAKTARI was the only one that allowed me to feed them, clean their enclosures…And I loved taking care of them. Martin, the cheetah is the most impressive animal in the camp, but I enjoyed spending time with the meerkats the most.

DAKTARI offers a better interaction with both animals and the village than other organizations. Usually they offer you either a children program or an animal program, but not both. That’s why I choose to come here.

Teaching the children was really nice. You do the dog walk with them before breakfast. Then we have morning stabling where they learn how to take care of wildlife. The rest of the morning is dedicated to the lessons. You have a break between 12.30 and 2pm. The lessons continue until 4.30pm which is the time of the afternoon stabling. At 6.30pm it is dinner time and after we have an activity with the children. During the day, you can help with animals at any time, as long as you don’t have a lesson. I really enjoyed the social talk about the safe sex, it was really interesting.

That’s why DAKTARI’s project is important because you can sensitize the children, the future of the country, to the importance of taking care of their animals and their environment. It is with project like this that you can make a real difference on the long term.

During my volunteer experience, I went to the Blyde River Canyon. It was super impressive and really beautiful, I highly recommend it. If I had to choose my best memory, I would say that is when we went to the Oaks village for the Mandela day. We cleaned the village for 67 minutes, then we ate a delicious meal. At the end of the lunch, we went to the school and children surprised us with a song. We played with them for an hour and a half and we talked a lot. That was a special day for them and we had the possibility to share it with them.

What I learnt the most is the way of living of the South Africans. Children taught us their games, you can share your vision of life with them and talk about the differences… And I liked living in the bush, it is such a different way of living. You can experiment something different, even though DAKTARI has more comfort that the houses in the villages around us.

So, to conclude, I would say COME, do not hesitate!”