Looking for a cruisy holiday? You’re in the wrong place
Volunteering at WECare isn’t one of those cookie cutter charity placements where you pay loads of money to twiddle your thumbs and feel like a spare part. Our volunteers are vital cogs in the machine. That’s why we only want energetic and driven humans to come join the team. Don’t worry, there’ll plenty of time to surf, swim and laze in the sun with your new BFFs, but you’ve got to be prepared to get your hands dirty – and not mind having a sweaty upper lip…!
I'm not a vet - can I still volunteer?
Yes! It’s not just veterinary volunteers we’re after – if you’ve got a skill, we can probably use it! Whether you’re a tradie, photographer or talented artist, we’d love to hear from you. We’ve always got projects on the go. None of the above, but a world class dog cuddler? We’re always looking for animal care volunteers to spend their days socialising with poorly dogs, cleaning kennels and picking up poo!
Get involved - don't just exist, live!
WE’RE CURRENTLY LOOKING FOR:
Vets (3+ years experience)
Veterinary nurses (2+ years experience)
Animal care assistants
Photographers/videographers
Handymen/women
We prefer long-term volunteers (1 month+) as it takes a while to get the hang of things – the longer the better!
Please note we can’t accommodate volunteers who only want to do a day or two.
COVID-19 UPDATE
Sri Lanka is slowly opening up to visitors again (yay!), but the rules are changing all the time.
Currently, fully vaccinated visitors can enter the country with a negative PCR test taken 96 hours before departure (some airlines may request 72 hours before departure). If you pass your PCR test on day one of your stay, you’re free to roam!
Visitors who aren’t vaccinated must have their negative PCR test before departure as above, but are required to spend 14 days (at their own expense) in a ‘Safe & Secure Certified Level 1 hotel’ where they’re free to roam the resort and use the facilities. We actually have a beautiful one near us and it’s right on the beach!
More info on the SriLankan Airlines website.
If you’re not ready to fly out now or don’t know the exact dates you’re able to travel (rules are changing all the time, we get it, don’t worry) , feel free to apply speculatively anyway as it can take time to get through applications. We look forward to hearing from you!
Why volunteer with WECare?
Do you even need to ask?! You get to work with like-minded humans, go to sleep every night knowing you've made a real difference, and travel around the island in your free time.
Sri Lanka has so much to offer, for such a small country. On your days off, you can surf fun breaks, explore the Cultural Triangle, eat incredible food, chill on stunning beaches, and go on wildlife-filled rainforest adventures.
As we're such a small charity, we can only offer accommodation to longer term volunteers (if there's space in our volunteer house). This will either be a private room or a dorm bed.
We can also advise on alternative accommodation in the area.
The application process
Fill in the application form below.
Wait to hear back from our volunteer coordinator.
If we want to move ahead with your application, we’ll arrange a face-to-face/Skype call.
If successful, you’d better get on Skyscanner!
We get a high volume of volunteer applications and it can take a while to process them all. Please sit tight – everyone who applies will receive a response eventually.
Ready to embark on a life-changing adventure?
Before you apply we require all our volunteers to fundraise at least £350 prior to arrival which will go towards our hospital running costs.
![Found this pic, which always makes us laugh as Jono and Janey look pissssssssed off, and we were going to make a joke about it but actually we thought we’d get real for a minute and be honest. These are the faces you don’t see behind the cheery social media façade. We’re exhausted. We’re overwhelmed. We’re sometimes not sure how much longer we can do this, and we feel guilty for even having those thoughts.
We all bloody love our jobs, but we’ve been running on ‘emergencies only’ with skeleton staff for over a year now and the community dogs didn’t get the message – there’s a revolving door of injured animals and we just can’t keep up.
Our kennels are full. We’re using all our pop-ups. Every day we have to turn away poorly dogs because they’re just not poorly enough (!). We’re turning way cases that would be classed as serious emergencies in the UK, because they’re just not serious enough to make the cut here. We can’t take in a dog with a TVT when we only have one spot free and know we already have a dog with a huge knife wound waiting for us. We have a long waiting list of dogs in our area, ready to fill any empty kennels, and the dogs just keep coming. Puppies are being dumped on us every week.
We’ve been struggling by with only two vets for a long time now and it’s just not sustainable. A year ago we thought everything would be back to normal ‘in a few months’ and yet here we are, no closer to being able to operate like we used to. We’re all desperate for a break but we can’t go anywhere until we have new staff to relieve us. And they don’t seem to be coming any time soon. People often don’t take us seriously as a job offer (do other NGOs get this?) and drop out at the last minute, not realising how much we were relying on them coming.
There’s honestly a new hurdle every day. Sometimes we laugh about it, sometimes we cry.
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