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Volunteer stories

Stories of returned volunteers including images. These stories come straight from the volunteers telling the world about their international volunteer project in Sri Lanka

My 8 weeks in Sri Lanka working with the turtles was memorable, an experience I will never forget. The friends I made are missed so much, and its only 24hrs since I last saw them!! The warmth of JR + the team made all the difference and I have already recommended LEO to others. Turtles are quite awe inspiring reptiles – not cold at all! I will certainly be back again, same project, in 2012 – naturally with LEO!! I highly recommend the whole experience – age has NO limit for adventure. Go for it!! ...
Everything... The village, the people, the dinner with the Neighbours, playing with the kids, the TNT-club and we met YOU!! haha. Joining the project was one of the best parts of our Holidays in Malaysia!!! Everybody should join a project like this during holidays!!! Iris, June 2011 ...
Back in England after 2 weeks of amazingness! Thanks to all you wonderful people at Perhentian, I will miss you all very much!! Keep up the good work, and enjoy the mango and pineapple goodness (long live the fruits) Kate Sandford, British, Aug 2011 ...
The trip seems so far away now but we had a very special experience. Finlay still talks alot about his trip and it was a fantastic opportunity for him and he would love to go back! I thought the over all project was very well organised and offered lots of learning opportunities. I did find it hard to spend many nights patrolling the beach only to have to allow the egg collectors take the eggs and remove them from a very well protected beach not being absolutely sure where they were going. Hopefully the beach at Bubbles will become a legal place for the eggs to remain in the future. I will get finlay to put some comments down. We were ...
Bubbles diving & turtles – Well, here's what I have to say about the Perhentian project: It has been a wonderful experience for me because in Singapore, we don't have beautiful beaches that are home to such exotic and interesting marine wildlife. Also, being in Perhentian has taught me so much about the turtles, has let me actually experience something out of my comfort zone; doing turtle watches, watching the hatching process, learning about corals and the marine ecosystem at Perhentian. These are things that we do not learn in school, so it was very refreshing for me. I made many new friends when I participated in the Perhentian project and has given me one experience that I will not forget. ...
I have returned from 18 days spent in Sri Lanka working mainly at the orphanage in Kegalle arranged through LEO. The experience has given me everything I hoped for, and hopefully I have managed to do something useful whilst being there. It has enabled me to understand more about the country and the people I met. Personally I needed to know more about how able children are in English at different ages in Sri Lanka to help my work on a link with a school in the country, and the chance to interact and have fun with a group of engaging young children for two hours a day has helped me tremendously – and has been a memorable experience. They ...
Testimonial by Antje Schröder - working with sea turtles It was a wonderful experience to be in Sri Lanka and also to do the turtle project. Dudley – the owner – is doing something wonderful and I am pleased, that I was able to help out for a few days. These animals are wonderful creatures and I hope many of them will be saved. It was so much fun to be around them and to show and explain everything to the tourists. When I was in Ahangama, I saw a turtle nesting on New Years Eve. That was wonderful too. Since there was also the community project at the accomandation were I stayed with the turtles, I was able to teach English to ...
Testimonial by Wei Shiek - working with children Upon signing up to volunteer with LEO, I had little idea who I would be teaching, how I would be teaching and where I would be teaching. All I knew is that I would be teaching English. Upon my arrival at Vajira Children’s Home for my first day of work, the children were all lined up in the dusty quadrangle reciting Buddhist prayers under the supervision of the teachers. Although I understood nothing of what they were saying at the assembly, it was ...
Testimonial by Teresa Mullauer – Turtles All in all my stay in Sri Lanka was a really interesting experience. It is a really beautiful country with amazing and very friendly people. I really miss the turtles, the other volunteers, the staff at the project and especially Anne & Amal – the whole leo team is gorgeous – not only the support during the stay, also the contact before with JR was excellent – thank you very much. I hope to have the chance to do another project with Leo once again....
Testimonial by Ruth Fernandez-Garcia - Turtles I definitely recommend this experience. Unfortunately, I could only stay for a week participating in the project but I absolutely recommend spending at least 2 weeks volunteering. I was really amazed to see the birth of baby hawkbill turtles in my first hour of work! It was an incredible view. And of course, releasing the turtles in the evening, for a biologist like me, was also a “once in a life time” experience. I did not know at that time that we were going to have baby turtles every day ;-) Personally, it was also very ...