Join us & help Cambodia’s last elephants!

Elephant Valley Project Mondulkiri Cambodia

Volunteers Elephant Valley Project Mondulkiri Cambodia

Visitors & Ele Elephant Valley Project Mondulkiri Cambodia

Base Camp Elephant Valley Project Mondulkiri Cambodia

Food Elephant Valley Project Mondulkiri Cambodia

Vols Signs Elephant Valley Project Mondulkiri Cambodia

Volunteer work Elephant Valley Project Mondulkiri Cambodia

Vols Elephant Valley Project Mondulkiri Cambodia

Volunteering - Grass Cutting Elephant Valley Project Mondulkiri Cambodia

Food Plate Elephant Valley Project Mondulkiri Cambodia

Vol with eles Elephant Valley Project Mondulkiri Cambodia

“Do you love elephants? Have you wanted to give back and make a difference? Dreaming of days spent hiking in the remote Cambodian jungle alongside these amazing animals? Well do we have something for you! Come get dirty, learn, have fun and help us make the world a better place for elephants. You will be amazed when you see the elephants, and even more amazed at what you’re capable of. We would be nowhere without the support of amazing volunteers like you!”

Program Info

Elephants, Forest, and Ecotourism Volunteer Program

To really get immersed in the project, get to know the elephants better, and give something back, joining onto our elephant placement program is the perfect option. We recommend, and have found that most people get the greatest value with our base program of 2 weeks which gives you a real opportunity to get familiar with the sanctuary and the elephants. You will enjoy amazing guided hikes out to observe the elephant in the forest, spend time immersed in nature on jungle treks, and contribute to volunteer sessions! Your placement fees also are directly contributing to the care and welfare of the elephants, forest preservation, and community programs.

You will spend your first couple of days as an induction, learning about the project, meeting the different elephants and learning about the forest, community, conservation, and the elephants. The end of the 1st week and then throughout the 2nd week you will combine elephant observations, learn about elephant health and welfare on routine checks, and learn more about the traditional role that elephants play with the local Indigenous culture. You will leave the program understanding more about Asian elephants, their health and wellbeing, and become a true advocate for their conservation.

During your program you will also contribute by volunteering onsite. Volunteer projects may include growing supplementary food for the elephants (e.g. bamboo), working in our reforestation project growing or planting endangered tree species, or helping out with small construction and maintenance projects like trails, elephant treatment area maintenance, building bridges, painting, etc. – all so the EVP continues to develop as as a facility for elephant care, ecotourism, education and conservation. All projects are dependent on the time of year e.g. rainy & dry season and the jobs that are required to be completed onsite that month. Please note that because the elephants live happily in their natural habitat, none of the volunteer tasks will be working directly with the elephants.

We would love to know in your application if you have any skills you think could help out on the program, e.g. building, plumbing, horticulture, vet medicine, etc. Just let us know so we can try and plan projects where we can utilise your skills.

Best times to visit:
Nov – Feb: High tourist season, cooler temps, then leading onto dry hot season.
Mar – May: Hot, hot, hot dry temps, building up to the start of the rains!
June – Aug: Start of the rainy season, summer holiday travels for families and school groups.
Sept – Oct: Wet, wet, wet rainy months, but beautifully green! Tourist low season.

Prices & How to BOOK

Dates

Placements at the sanctuary are on set intake dates and the base program is 2 weeks. You can then add additional weeks on top of this. Each program begins at 3pm on Sunday afternoon. The program finishes the second week on Saturday morning, when you can travel onwards or explore the local area more.

If you are short on time, you can also just join for the first week.

You can also add on an arrivals and transfer package from the capital city of Phnom Penh.

To book click the APPLY NOW button above to fill out an application form, including selecting your preferred start date.

Base Program – 2 Weeks

Option A: Shared Room (Single Bed / Shared Bathrooms)

Price = $900 (Inc VAT) – Foreign Nationals

Price = $450 (Inc VAT) – Cambodian National Residents (K-Visa N/A)

Option B: Private Bungalow (Double Bed – Sleeps 2 Comfortably, Private Ensuite)

Price = $1000 (Inc VAT) – Foreign Nationals

Price = $500 (Inc VAT) – Cambodian National Residents (K-Visa N/A)

Prices are Per Person.

Program includes:

- Daily guided hikes to observe elephants (3-4 km of hiking each time)
- Daily Volunteer sessions.
- A couple of guided jungle trek (3-4 km of hiking).
- English speaking guides.
- 10 nights accommodation at the sanctuary
- All meals while at the sanctuary (from dinner on Sun to lunch on Fri each week)
- Weekends are spent back in town, where we include your accommodation, including the final Friday night of the program. Meals in town are at your own cost
- Free laundry service while onsite
- Transport from Sen Monorom to EVP site and back.

Start dates are set every 2 weeks. Our program starts at 3pm on the first Sunday afternoon, and finishes on Saturday morning of week 2.

Short on time – Join for just 1 week.

If you can only spare one week, but still want to contribute to the elephants, you can join for the 1st week of the volunteer program. You will join for the introduction days to the elephants and learn the basics of elephant health and welfare, contribute with a few volunteering sessions and join a jungle trek .

Option A: Shared Room (Single Bed / Shared Bathrooms)

Price = $500 (Inc VAT) – Foreign Nationals

Price = $250 (Inc VAT) -Cambodian National Residents (K-Visa N/A)

Option B: Private Bungalow (Double Bed – Sleeps 2 Comfortably, Private Ensuite)

Price = $550 (Inc VAT) – Foreign Nationals

Price = $275 (Inc VAT) – Cambodian National Residents (K-Visa N/A)

Our full week starts at 3pm on Sunday afternoon through to Friday 5.30pm, plus – includes final Friday night accommodation in town.

Start dates are set every 2 weeks, with the 2 week base volunteer program.

Want to stay longer? Add a 3rd or 4th week

If you love elephants you can add additional weeks, getting lots more ele time! You also have the opportunity to get more involved in the program, become a team leader where you support the new volunteer arrivals, assist leading volunteer sessions and daily visitor check ins etc. Or you can enjoy your holiday and switch off by totally immersing yourself in the beautiful jungle surroundings.

Extra Weeks & Add Ons

Option A: Shared Room

Week 3 $400 per person (Inc VAT) – includes additional weekend accommodation in town

Week 4 + $350 per person (Inc VAT) – includes additional weekend accommodation in town

Option B: Private Bungalow

Week 3 $450 per person (Inc VAT) – includes additional weekend accommodation in town

Week 4 + $400 per person (Inc VAT) – includes additional weekend accommodation in town

Transfer package

You can make your own way out here to the mountains, but if you want the ease of getting on off a long flight and having everything taken care of, we partner with a local travel agency to include an arrival and transfer package from Phnom Penh. You need to arrive on the Saturday before the program into Phnom Penh.

Includes – Airport pickup, 1 night accommodation in Phnom Penh (dinner/bed/breakfast), private transport to Mondulkiri with English speaking driver (with other volunteers arriving that week) including lunch stop on the way, transfer back to the city of Phnom Penh at the end of program (VIP minivan – public bus).

$340 per person (Inc VAT)

+$50 per person (Inc VAT) Single Supplement (confirmed one month in advance)

Why Join the Program

ELEPHANTS! enough said.

If you truly love elephants and you want to view these amazing creatures in their natural habitat, respectfully, there is no better place in the world. You will spend your days relaxing in the forest watching the elephants interact with each other, explore their environment and exhibit natural behavior again. When you learn about their pasts and see their lives now, it touches the heart. It is truly beautiful and a life changing experience.

Support the Bigger Picture

Our goal is to support the elephants, forest and the indigenous people of Cambodia’s Mondulkiri province and you can be a part of this. With only 70 elephants left in captivity in Cambodia, and 400-600 in the wild, it is critical to support this last remaining population of elephants in Cambodia!

By choosing to book a placement with us, the money we receive is vital to keeping the operations of the sanctuary and our NGO (ELIE) going, helping provide support to the elephants and people! We rehabilitate and care for sick and abused elephants, run a mobile vet unit for the community elephants outside of the EVP, protect the forests and provide vital jobs, healthcare, community assistance for the local indigenous population surrounding our sanctuary, as well supporting elephant owners across Cambodia.

Give Back

You will also do many volunteering sessions as part of your placement at the EVP. You will have a direct impact by contributing to massive projects like: maintaining elephant food farms, replanting endangered trees into the local forest, restoring trails, assisting in research, checking and monitoring the elephant’s health, and so much more!

A practical metaphor; say you come out and lend a hand in our nursery planting endangered tree seeds, week after week other volunteers come through and nurture those seeds into saplings, in a few months more volunteers come through and re-pot and move the growing trees, and then within a year your little seed has now found a new home in the forest growing strong to keep the forests of Cambodia alive! You are a part of the big picture!

Meet new people & become part of a team

The volunteer program is capped at 12 people and you get the chance to meet people from all over the world. In your two week program you will become a close knit team and work together on the volunteer tasks, as well as visiting the elephants.

As the sanctuary project has progressed we have seen a growth in visitor numbers. We now run a number of programs on site including the elephant placement programs, a groups & education program and day tours for short-term visitors. As the running of the project, sanctuary and all outreach relies on the donations of volunteers and visitors, this growth is necessary. However we still have maximum numbers on each visit to the elephants for the elephants welfare (max 12-14 people) and so you can enjoy a personal experience. But with all the programs combined there could be up to 20-30 people staying onsite at the basecamp sometimes in high season – so make sure you book in advance! However this is also one of the great benefits – you get to meet many people from all walks of life and make life long connections and friends.

Advocate for elephants

Our overall goal for your time with us, is for you to have an amazing experience and to leave as highly knowledgeable elephant advocates which will help continue our work all over the world!

A Basic Itinerary

“Elephants, friends, hanging in the jungle, giving back… what could be better?!?”

Basic 2 Week Itinerary

Day 1 – Sunday	Arrive in Mondulkiri province early afternoon and meet the team and other volunteers who will be joining you for your two placement
Day 2 – Monday	Introduction Day. Spend the first day just meeting the elephants and learning their stories, whilst also learning about the forest and the local community.
Day 3-5 Tues – Thurs	Days will now be split between spending time with the elephants in the forest learning more about them & also how to undertake a health assessment and check, together with getting invoice by helping with volunteer sessions on jobs needing to be done onsite.
Day 6 – Friday	A final elephant session for the week, as well as having the opportunity to join a hike out into the community forest for waterfalls and wildlife viewing to finish the week before heading back into the town of Sen Monorom at the end of the day
Day 7 – Saturday	Free time, relax, explore waterfalls or book a tour with a local guide
Day 8 – Sunday	At 3pm in the afternoon return back to the EVP site
Day 9-12 Mon – Thurs	Personal volunteer projects intermingled with elephant health checks and time in the forest
Day 13 – Friday	Final day onsite, one last visit to the elephants, spend the afternoon swimming in the waterfall (season dependant) and then pack up and head to town.
Day 14 – Saturday	Project Placement complete! Head back to Phnom Penh or continue exploring Mondulkiri province and more of Cambodia.
3 Weeks +	If you come back for week three, four or more – you will have the opportunity to become a team leader where you support the new volunteer arrivals, assist leading volunteer sessions and visitor check ins, together with lots more elephant time.

A typical day

Days at the project begin at 7 AM with a delicious breakfast served by our kitchen staff in our group dining room overlooking the lush misty morning forest.

After breakfast, you will have time to assist with the daily tasks and running of the site before heading out into the forest. This ranges from cleaning the treatment centre and washing station ready for the elephants arrival, making the medicine balls that our elderly elephants require, to watering tree saplings and shoots in the nursery.

At around 8:30 AM we will either head out to visit the elephants in the forest or get into some volunteer work. The structure of the days can vary depending on staffing and other visitor numbers onsite.

A delicious buffet lunch is served daily allowing for a two hour rest to avoid the heat of the day and plenty of time to read or have a nap in a hammock. This is also your holiday so feel free to incorporate as much relaxation time as you like!

Following lunch we will either once again go out to see elephants or volunteer depending on the schedule up until 4-5 PM

After the day’s activities and a refreshing shower, the evening is yours to relax and unwind with a beverage or a book in our beautiful lounge watching the sunset.

Dinner is at 6 PM and is always a highlight with delicious local dishes more than enough for seconds or thirds. There are also beer / soda for sale.

Night time excitement is completely up to the visitors. We have plenty of games to play in our lounge, movies shown in our education centre or a fire pit to roast marshmallows and get to know everyone. But we find that after a day of hiking and working onsite early nights are always the best option.

Tuck into your comfy bed, with an included mosquito net, as you snooze to the night sounds of the jungle.

How Long Can I Stay?

Stay 2 week, 3 weeks, FOREVER!

Long-term placements start at 2 weeks and can last….. well as long as you want! But we usually find that people are often quite busy with careers, family etc. and therefore usually stay on average between 2 – 4 weeks.

This is your chance to work at the sanctuary and learn about elephants. It is all inclusive, except for meals on the weekend when we stay in town., when it’s your free time to explore the local area.

We also ask in our application form about your skill sets, so that we can tailor the volunteer sessions to the group of volunteers that month, making them more productive and helping the project also get the most out of your stay. In the past we had veterinarians, cooks and chefs, photographers, builders, plumbers, electricians, accountants, farmers and mum’s come and visit and help develop the site. However it is also a place to learn, and we don’t require any specific skills to join the program, everyone pulls up their sleeves and gets stuck into all the work that needs to be done.

You can see the price of extensions beyond the 2 week program on the ‘PRICES & HOW TO BOOK’ tab. If you are looking to get even more involved we have internships, research placements and career info on our About Us Page!

APPLY DIRECTLY WITH US NOW!

MORE INFO
Check out the information below on everything you need to know about the project and site. For example click through the tabs below for information in regards to what food is like, the accommodation and what the volunteering sessions with us will be like!

*This information section focuses on our 2 week + placement programs. Our 2 Day/1 Night and 3 Day/2 Night programs also all include sessions of volunteering onsite, where visitors join staff, community and long term volunteers on the tasks being undertaken that month.

Food

Accommodation

Volunteer Work

What to Bring

Where Your Money Goes

Volunteer Partners

You are welcome to Book Direct With Us; however depending on your needs and desires our exceptional partner volunteer organizations may provide a smoother all inclusive travel experience. We have long standing relationships with many Ethical International Volunteering Organizations. This has proven to be a great success with a steady stream of dedicated volunteers coming to help us slowly build up our facilities and improve our level of elephant care and forestry protection. We have had people from all around the world and every walk of life, and we can safely say that without their help and support we would surely be broke and finished by now.

Volunteer partners include the arrival and transfer package and they are all absolute pros so you can trust the planning of your trip will be a success when you put the keys in their hands. Different partners cater to different focus areas so we invite you to check out the partner links below and explore each program!

Booking through a volunteer program does come with a higher price tag, however, you have a dedicated team helping you with your booking and providing support from abroad in case anything goes wrong.

Our Long Term Partner – Globalteer – check out their program!

APPLY DIRECTLY WITH US NOW!