{"id":9339,"date":"2016-11-24T04:33:28","date_gmt":"2016-11-24T04:33:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wearetravelgirls.com\/?p=9339"},"modified":"2025-08-24T07:28:49","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T14:28:49","slug":"volunteering-at-the-elephant-nature-park-chang-mai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wearetravelgirls.com\/volunteering-at-the-elephant-nature-park-chang-mai\/","title":{"rendered":"VOLUNTEERING AT THE ELEPHANT NATURE PARK, CHANG MAI"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I was 30, I decided to quit my job to explore the world for 6 months. Whilst I was excited to travel I was also\u00a0looking for some volunteer activities to make my trip more meaningful. One of my friends had introduced me to the Elephant Nature Park<\/a>\u00a0and after\u00a0browsing their website, my instinct said \u201cGo!\u201d so I did!<\/p>\n

ENP is a sanctuary and rehabilitation centre for elephants in northern Thailand, about 90minutes from Chang Mai,\u00a0that\u00a0rescues injured and tortured elephants by humans. Elephants were used for logging until the Thai government banned this in 1980s. But after the ban, lots of elephants were then forced to work in shows or used for street begging, this meant\u00a0elephants were made to live and work in the city with the mahouts or owners selling food for the elephant to tourists and make profits.<\/p>\n

Street begging elephants usually work in the night when they are supposed to sleep, and some of them are given\u00a0medicines to keep them awake during the night. \u00a0In many cases, mahouts use whips or arrows to train so that the elephants follow their orders. Due to the above reasons, many elephants can be injured or suffer trauma against humans.<\/p>\n

\"elephants-and-a-mahout\"The founder of ENP; Lek has been working to improve the situation for elephants since 1995. I arranged my stay at ENP as a volunteer for a week. There were a total of 30 volunteers from different countries who started working on the same day. During our stay the volunteers were provided a room\u00a0to stay (two persons in one room) with shared shower and toilet and\u00a03 vegetarian buffet meals (which is tasty!) were also provided.<\/p>\n

Each bed had a mosquito net so there was no need to worry too much about mosquito bites, but please remember you are\u00a0likely to encounter insects or bugs as the park is in a jungle. One morning, I was terrified by a huge grasshopper on my mosquito net. (If it was inside the net, I might have had a heart attack as grasshoppers are my least favorite!!)<\/p>\n

\"my-room\"Park life started early as the elephants start to rumble around 5am, followed by dogs barking and sounds of cicadas which were enough alarms to wake me up! (The park also rescues other animal such as dogs and cats.) We were divided into 3 groups, and each group had different chores in the morning and in the afternoon everyday.<\/p>\n

\"elephants\"
\nThe chores included:<\/p>\n