Volunteer Program
Welcome to our volunteer program, where dedicated individuals generously invest their time and energy to enhance the well-being of our animals in need of rescue, love, and stimulation. Our passionate volunteers wholeheartedly contribute to making a positive impact on the lives of these desperate animals.
If you feel a calling to give back to nature and want to make a meaningful difference, we invite you to connect with us. Give us a call and consider spending some volunteer time with our beloved animals. Your commitment and compassion can truly make a world of difference in their lives. Join us in creating a better future for these deserving creatures.
Feeding
Renewing cages for our monkeys
From time to time our cages must be re-furbished…Painting, re-wiring, new roof, building new swings and houses …
Monkey Integration - Welcome Willy
Willy’s journey began in Lydenburg, Mpumalanga, where new residents discovered him confined in a bird cage. Despite being their previous pet, the family couldn’t bring him along when they relocated, so they left him behind. We extend our gratitude to Magte for reaching out to us and prompting Willy’s rescue. Today, he resides happily alongside two other orphans, thriving under our care.
Periodically, we receive distressing calls from concerned individuals across the region, sharing stories similar to Willy’s. In response, we promptly dispatch our team to collect the monkey. Our dedicated veterinarians conduct thorough check-ups, and after a period of quarantine, the individual is integrated into the troop, joining others on the path to recovery. Your support makes these rescues and rehabilitations possible. Thank you for being a part of our mission.
Cleaning
For sure every cage and the waterholes in the bigger camps with one troop each inside needs to be cleaned regularly. Most of the time the monkeys will join you on your shoulder while you clean up their mess 🙂
Baby Season
The hardest but also the sweetest time of the year… From October to January, in the South African summer, many baby monkeys arrive at Helping Hands 4 Wildlife. Their moms either got hit by a car or shot by farmers who want to protect their harvest. Aside from that some people have baby monkeys as a pet, finding out after a few month that these animals are wild and do not belong in households. All these monkeys find help at our rehab and build a new troop which will be released a few years later.
Release - the overall goal
After staying a few years at our rehab our monkeys finally can be released into the wild again. In this process they will be moved from the baby cage to our big camps in which they learn to groom and protect each other and fight out their ranking.
Being part of the release is a once in a lifetime experience for our volunteers. We camp together in tents to monitor the first days of the release and just having a great time while seeing for what the whole team an all the volunteers worked so hard.
New cages for our unreleasables
Sadly sometimes we have monkeys at Helping Hands 4 Wildlife who can not be released any more. Some of them are just too attached to people because they were held as a pet or they have been castrated and their K9 were pulled out what unfortunately makes it difficult to release them again.
Thats why every now and then we have to build a new cage for an unreleasable monkey who then finds his forever home at our sanctuary.
Rest Time - Best Time
After all the hard work in the heat of the day there is nothing like sitting around a table and having a good meal, drink and laugh on the days challenges. Our volunteers deserve a good meal and that we really do provide.
