PHILIP ROOS, 18, GERMANY

It was a pleasure having this great experience at the Wildlife Centre.  Getting to know Malawi as well as different topics like animal/orphan care and outreach made this stay amazing.

Reason for Application: I wanted to take a gap year after high school and decided to visit my sister who is living in Lilongwe. During my stay here I looked for an option to keep myself busy and found the LWC, which looked great on their website! 

Things I worked on: I worked with a lot of different volunteers who were really nice and there were different projects like feeding orphans, creating enrichment or going on outreach trips.

Highlights: One of my favourite things was the feeding of the baby monkeys! But it was also really interesting to give a presentation about animal welfare and wildlife threats to a secondary school. Making friends with the other volunteers was so easy and we even went to the lake together.

Advice for later volunteers: The stay at the centre in Malawi can be amazing, but you have to talk to the staff and tell them what you like/not like to do on a daily basis (it’s worth trying everything!). As well, you should organise activities with the other volunteers and experience all of Malawi – not just the Centre!