Bear Sanctuary Volunteer Project, Cambodia

Project Costs 

The cost for 1 week (5 days) is £530, 2 weeks (12 days) is £800, 3 weeks is £1040, 4 weeks is £1415, 5 weeks is £1585 and 6 weeks is £1685. This covers food (daily breakfast and dinner from Monday-Thursday), accommodation in the shared volunteer house, pick up and drop off from set location in Phnom Penh on arrival/departure date, daily return transfers to/from the rescue centre, training, in-country and WorkingAbroad Project support.

The costs don’t include flights to/from Phnom Penh, health and travel insurance, visa fee, lunch during the week, and personal expenses. It is mandatory for you to take out travel and medical insurance for the duration of the project.

Please email victoria.mcneil@workingabroad.com for further details or any questions about dates and costs.

Payment Terms

To secure your placement on the project, you will need to complete and submit the application form with your application payment of £195 (included in the total project costs listed above). If for some reason your application is not accepted, we will reimburse this payment fully. However for those who are accepted, you will be required to pay the remaining balance 2 months before arrival. Once we have confirmed your place, you will receive a pre-departure package with all detailed information on the project, Cambodia, suggested items to bring etc.

How are funds used?

The volunteer fee covers the accommodation, transport, food and other expenses that are involved with having volunteers at the project. A part is also financially contributing to the running of the sanctuary. At the bear sanctuary in Cambodia, they are caring for 120+ rescued bears, all of which require a huge amount of resources in the form of time, money and care. The rescued bears need rehabilitation, a healthy diet, medical provisions, enrichment activities, hammocks, climbing platforms, cooling pools, dens and forest enclosures.

It costs over £3 per day to feed a single bear a healthy diet of fresh vegetables and fruit supplemented with dog biscuits for protein and additional pulses and grains. Many of the bears are rescued at an early age, sometimes as young as 1 month old. This means a lot of vegetables! Bears are also extremely intelligent creatures. To keep their complex minds stimulated and provide them as close an environment as possible to their natural habitat, they receive different enrichment activities daily. But nothing lasts long around a bear and they regularly need replacement.

The sanctuary tries to provide them the best life possible, as close as they can to a natural life with large forest enclosures with cooling pools to escape the summer heat. This often requires constant repairs and upkeep to maintain. Many of the rescued bears also require extensive medical care. Whether it’s a small cub, a bile farm bear with injuries/disease or bears in the sanctuaries requiring health checks and general health care, the vet department is constantly busy providing the very best treatment and care possible.

Each year, the sanctuary also take on more rescues as the government partners are able to increasingly enforce wildlife laws and confiscate animals. The volunteer programme is making it possible to also help pay for the Education and Awareness programmes.

Project Dates

This project runs from Monday to a following Friday. You will need to be ready for Monday morning pick up at 7:45 am from Phnom Penh and transfer to the sanctuary, so we recommend you arrive to Phnom Penh the weekend before your project starts so you can be ready for your pickup. At the end of your project on a Friday, you will be returned with drop off (approx by 5 pm) to the same point in Phnom Penh. The dates below are listed as a guide, however you can join this project on any Monday throughout the year.