During my time as a volunteer the Elephant Freedom Project was home to one elephant, Kumari. She had been rescued from labour work in the harsh wood logging industry and was now living on the family’s land with free access to banana trees. Kumari is staying with a keeper that makes sure she doesn’t hurt herself or others. You can visit the Elephant Freedom Project for half a day, a full day or several weeks as a volunteer. You can email them if you want to stay for a special amount of time (I stayed for 4 nights). Note: Every elephant keeper needs to have a stick nearby, in case the elephant gets out of control. This doesn’t automatically lead to mistreatment of elephants (even though the sticks are often used for this purpose). It is important to know that elephants are still wild animals, even if they are used to humans since birth. Besides taking care of the elephants there are several other activities you can do in Kegalle. You can visit a local dung factory that makes paper out of elephant dung, or take the bus to the nearby village to teach English at a private English school. You can also help cook lunch and learn how to cook real Sri Lankan food, or help to improve the project by building or brainstorming and acting on ideas to make things better for the elephant. Tips! Cooking was my favorite activity. You learn everything from picking and scraping a coconut to what type and how much spices to use for the perfect curry dish. Half a day: 6500 LKRFull day: 10 500 LKR1 week volunteering: 50 000 LKR2 weeks volunteering: 90 000 LKR3 weeks volunteering: 120 000 LKR If you don’t have that much time in Sri Lanka and need to speed it up, I would recommend the full-day volunteering. You will have plenty of time to be around the elephant, and still try some of the other activities. Their half-day volunteering would be a bit stressful.
