The Sea Turtle Rescue Center - Glyfada

Name: The Sea Turtle Rescue Center - Glyfada
Start: 2022-01-01
End: 2027-12-31
Location: Greece

Code: 2dbbac49-a72a-11eb-9a9a-fa163ef8d720 Copied

Greece Youth activities Environment Youth activities Environment Permanent

About the project

📝 Detailed information

🏢 About the local organisation

ARCHELON, a nonprofit conservation organization active since 1983, runs a number of volunteer projects for the protection of sea turtles and their habitats in Greece every year. More than 500 international volunteers per year participate in our projects, including about 30 field leaders. Every year we are entering in internship agreements with 70 Universities and other educational establishments from all over the world.

💼 What the programme involves

The Centre receives about 70 rescued sea turtles per year from all over Greece, which are injured or sick. The turtles receive treatment and care and when they are fully rehabilitated, they are released back into the sea
The Rescue Centre operates throughout the year. The volunteer will be expected to participate in all aspects of work at the Rescue Centre under the supervision of specialized staff. These are the Rescue Network, sea turtle rehabilitation, public awareness, maintenance and data collection. Duties will be allocated by the Rescue and Rehabilitation Officer, usually in accordance with a weekly schedule. Interns share the same duties as the rest of the volunteers. Please note that adult sea turtles are heavy and may weigh up to 80 kgr. You will be shown how to handle them during your training.

More specifically:
• Rescue Network: activities include response to injured sea turtle stranding throughout Greece, collection of injured sea turtles from the airport, train or bus station, or ports. Understandably these activities are not part of the daily routine, but take priority whenever they do occur. Volunteers with an EU driving license might be asked to drive ARCHELON’s car for this purpose.
• Sea turtle Rehabilitation: duties include the preparation and administration of food (usually fish) to the turtles, the preparation of tube feed for weak turtles that do not eat on their own, tube feeding those animals, observing and assisting, in some cases, the daily treatments of the animals as determined by the Rescue Network and Rehabilitation Officer and vets (administering medication, cleaning wounds), cleaning/disinfection of the rehabilitation tanks as well as taking biometric data and making behavioral observations. This is one of the main daily activities within the Rescue Centre, since during winter there is an average of 25 to 30 turtles and during summer 35-40 turtles under treatment. Please note that this is a highly physical demanding task.
• Public Awareness: activities include providing information to visitors of the Rescue Centre, conducting presentations/tours to organized groups and assisting in public events organized by ARCHELON to promote the Rescue Centre
• Maintenance: activities include basic maintenance duties like cleaning the facilities and equipment.
• Data collection: behavioral observations, diving condition of the animals, medical checks (presence and type of feces and urine), taking temperatures of the turtles’ tanks.

🏠 Accommodation on site

Accommodation is provided by ARCHELON in an apartment in Paleo Faliro, with direct bus and tram connection to Glyfada. The apartment can accommodate at maximum 8 volunteers. There are two bedrooms and volunteers are usually not allocated in the rooms on a gender basis. There is also a kitchen, a bathroom, a living room/dining area and a big balcony. Central heating and Wi-Fi are also available.
Some days of the week, few volunteers have to spend the night at the Rescue Centre, in a train wagon converted into a small bedroom with 4 beds, a kitchen, a toilet and a shower. This wagon can get quite cold in the winter and is heated by air conditioning and electric panels. During summer fans and limited areas with air conditioning can be used for cooling off in excessive heat.

🍲 Food

📍 About the location

The Rescue Centre is located in Glyfada, close to Athens (see map Sea Turtle Rescue Centre). It is easily accessible by bus and tram.

🎒 Leisure activities

Volunteers have one day off per week.
Athens, the capital of Greece, is a city with many points of interest; rich history, good shopping, tasty food and an amazing nightlife. Volunteers can visit museums and archaeological sites like the Parthenon or the Temple of Poseidon in Sounio. The Centre is located next to the sea thus during summer the volunteers can swim at the beach next to the Centre

⚠️ Requirements

- Applicants must be over 18 years old.
- They must be able to communicate fluently in English and must be covered by a personal health insurance policy.
- The minimum period of participation is 5 weeks. Exceptionally, returning volunteers can join their projects for 4 weeks.
- A combination of participation in more than one projects is possible if the duration of stay in the second/ third of them is 4 weeks or longer.
- Applicants must be in very good health and in good physical shape due to the projects' physically-demanding tasks and living conditions.
- Volunteers must bring their own camping gear (e.g. sleeping bag, tent, torch, alarm clock, etc).

ℹ️ Additional information

Participation period: All year round.
- 5 weeks at least: 710€

The Volunteer participation fee covers administration and training costs, accident insurance coverage (up to a limit), annual subscription as ARCHELON supporter and accommodation costs.
Transportation costs from/to the Sea Turtle Rescue Centre are to be covered by volunteers. You will need to present your passport in order to have a monthly transportation card issued. For a student discount, you will need to present your student card.

Interested in this project? Create your account and apply online.