A special experience rescuing dogs, kittens and helping in the conservation of sea turtles.
My daughter Lizzie and I travelled to Sri Lanka in June to do the street dog programme. We have travelled a lot in the past but it was honestly one of the best trips of our lives!
TMR were a great support before we even arrived, they gave us all the info we needed in advance and we used the WhatsApp groups to get tips and share ideas or solve issues with our fellow volunteers too.
"We will definitely volunteer with Mighty Roar again and we can’t recommend them highly enough. If you love animals, you’ll love this programme!"
We were picked up from the airport in Colombo with no stress and were quickly whizzed to the accommodation in Akurala beach. From the minute we arrived we had such a great feeling from Ayomi and her team - they couldn’t do enough for us and we could see that they really do care for the volunteers and the valuable work being done.
We quickly settled into our room for 8 (although we only had 7 of us). Had some lunch and then went off on a city tour. We did some amazing trips whilst we were there, all organised by the local team including walking to a Buddhist temple where the monks were chanting, a trip to a moonstone mine and a tsunami museum which really moved us.
My personal favourite was going to a waterfall - one of the local team (who also runs the dog programme) Thaksi brought her dog Shadow and we all had such a great time cooling down in the water.
Working with the street dogs was hard work - we prepared and cooked the food (fish, vegetables and 10kg of rice) - but it was so rewarding too. We took the TMR Tuk Tuk out around the village feeding up to 70 dogs a day. Seeing how excited the dogs were when the Tuk Tuk arrived meant we knew our work was really appreciated and making a difference!
We also brought some dogs (including four puppies we got to name) back for baths and treatments as well as to the vets in the local town to get checked over, have vaccinations and collect medications. We quickly got to know the dogs and their unique characters.
We also rescued a tiny kitten. We called him Domino, took him to the vets, syringe fed him for a few days and started to see an improvement quickly. It was so lovely seeing all the volunteers working together to help care for Domino and we also found him a forever home to go to once he was bigger!
We also got to help with the turtle programme too and the timings worked well together. We saw a turtle laying eggs on the beach, got to bury eggs in the hatchery, saw hatchlings digging themselves out to the surface and also helped release 78 hatchlings one evening! Added to that we got to swim with some wild turtles at Turtle Beach which was also amazing.
It was my birthday when I was away and it was such a special day. Thaksi had arranged a cake for me which was a lovely surprise and very thoughtful. All the volunteers sang happy birthday and Lizzie and I then headed into the local town Hikkaduwa for brunch - it’s very easy to get into town either by Tuk Tuk or if you fancy an an adventure by bus. We laughed so much on the buses as it was an art getting them to stop and then getting off at the right place - google maps is your friend!
Big thanks to Ayomi and Thaksi in particular and to the whole TMR team and our fellow volunteers. We were sad to come home but grateful for having created such amazing memories together and made so many new friends. We feel we have experienced real Sri Lanka, having lived and worked in the village with such friendly and caring local people.
We will definitely volunteer with Mighty Roar again and we can’t recommend them highly enough. If you love animals, you’ll love this programme!
