Once you’ve taken the plunge and applied to volunteer on your gap year in animal conservation or teaching and community projects, what’s the next step? Well, the good news is, aside from a few basic visa and inoculation preparations, you won’t have too much to organise.

(pic by Kevin Dooley)

Getting Fit
It’s not like climbing Everest, you don’t need to be in peak physical condition to take on the animals on your gap year, but you do need to be pretty fit.  You’re in for a lot of physical work doing anything from mending fences to maintaining vehicles, and some of the projects involve long treks carrying equipment. The last thing you want is to embarrass yourself by not being able to keep up, so before you go you should start a fitness regime of some sort in order to boost your levels. Join a gym, ride your bike to work, or simply start walking or hiking on the weekends.

Getting to Know You
One great way of ensuring you won’t feel shy when you set off on your gap year adventure is to meet up with the people who are going on your trip before you leave home. The best way of doing this is to join WWE’s Facebook page and post a message to see if anyone else out there is going. It’s also a great way to get tips from people who have already been on a trip; start a conversation and see what happens!

Getting the Word Out
When you’re on your gap year, and even when you get back, it’s a great idea to keep some kind of a blog or diary of your experiences. A blog is easy to set up on something like WordPress and it a fantastic way of keeping connected with friends and family at home as well as documenting your gap year.  If you do, please let us know as we would love to post some of your experiences here on our blog to share it with others.

Have fun!

When on your gap year projects keep your eyes peeled for any animal antics around your reserve particularly if the Jacuzzi appears to be going down. Staff at the Etali Safari Park said that it took them months to figure out why the Jacuzzi was rapidly going down every morning. Most mornings there was never more than a puddle of water left in the Jacuzzi and even though they dutifully checked for leaks they couldn’t find a reason for the lack of water. Â Then one of the guests at the reserve took a photograph that solved the mystery. The …

Organising gap year projects for those who are passionate about animals and conservation is simply part and parcel of what we do here at WorldWide Experience.  However, sadly it seems that not everybody is quite so interested in the welfare of animals.   A global survey recently released tells us that of 10,000 individuals aged between five to eighteen years of age who were asked to rank what they considered to be priorities, only four per cent stated that saving the environment was important to them.  Conversely, a whopping forty per cent claimed that their priority was in fact watching …