We are profoundly humbled at the same time filled with a tremendous sense of accomplishment that the volunteer program of the Sri Lanka Wildlife Conservation Society is in, the 100 best volunteer vacations to enrich your life (Pages 204 & 205) written by Pam Grout and published by National Geographic.
It was in 2002 that the Sri Lanka Wildlife Conservation Society initiated to integrate the newly emerging concept of volunteering to our projects to make the projects sustainable, provide the means to engage local village youth actively in our Field Scouts program, as well as to overcome the uncertainties associated with depending mostly on grant funding to maintain our projects and operations over the long term.
In 2007 we faced an uphill task due to the escalating civil conflict in the country volunteer recruitment to our program fell so low that the very existence of the society was at stake. Yet we prevailed and managed to keep our volunteer program operating. Since then we have developed partnerships with several more international volunteer placement organizations located in the UK, USA, Australia, Netherlands, Thailand and China.
Thereby it is with a great sense of accomplishment and appreciation that we share this information with our friends, partners, supporters, donors, and volunteers. To all the organizations that recruit volunteers for our program and to those hundreds and hundreds of volunteers who had participated in our program supporting our wildlife conservation efforts over the past 14 years, it is with a deep sense of gratitude that we say, Thank You!