About Volunteers in Defense of Animals
VEDA is an organisation whose principal objective is to establish and protect the rights of animals and encourage the education of these rights amongst the people.

VEDA is involved in the rescuing of both domesticated and wild animals and the required nursing or rehabilitation after their rescue.

Not just animal lovers will sympathise with the goals of this organization – I’m positive that many a traveler has felt uncomfortable about the way animals are treated in countries less privileged than those from which they are from – from dogs wandering the streets to “pony rides” for the kids, a sad look in an animals eyes will tug at your heart strings.

VEDA believe its possible to live in harmony with animals and its there mission to realise education campaigns about the need to be responsible with domestic animals, to communicate the advantages of animal vaccination, ensure the enforcement of local laws protecting animals, provide information about the adoption of abandoned animals, promote vegetarianism and lessen the abuse of animals for scientific purposes, for recreation, exhibition and for illegal sale.

More information about the charity can be found on their website http://www.veda-bolivia.org/index.htm – note that it’s written in Spanish only.

Volunteering
Opportunities for volunteers are varied and interesting. Volunteers will collaborate with the care and attention of the rescued animals with VEDA members. The work would include anything from visiting animals (lots of puppies!) that are recuperating in veterinary clinics – here you will take them for walks and check that they are not in need of any immediate attention. In other cases, where animals have been placed in temporary homes, you will assist in providing basic care, anything from feeding, cleaning, administering of medicines, bathing and brushing. Depending on the time you have to volunteer and your level of Spanish, you may be able to assist with education and publicity campaigns for VEDA and animal protection. Work will be for approximately 4 hours per day, 6 days a week.

GREAT WAY TO PRACTICE YOUR SPANISH COMPREHENSION!! At this time, we are also seeking volunteers to assist with the translation of the VEDA website into other languages – English, French, German – and others welcome if you can. For this volunteer job you don’t even have to be in Santa Cruz!! You can offer to translate just a page or the whole site – all help is welcome and needed. I will assist in the editing of anything written in English but please if you wish to translate into other languages its best if it’s your first language.

Experience working with animals is a plus but not essential, a love and patience for animals is absolutely essential.

Level of Spanish Required and Minimum Volunteer Periods
A basic level of Spanish is ok for this volunteer position, and a number of members of this charity speak English - a great opportunity to combine with Spanish lessons and learn even faster by practicing with those members who only speak Spanish. Volunteers should be available for a minimum of 2 weeks and the maximum number of volunteers at any time is 2.

Costs or Inclusions
Volunteer assistance is very much appreciated and there are no fees for participation or costs to volunteer. Volunteers will need to organise and pay for their own accommodation and support themselves financially while working with this charity.

Apply
Send enquiries to info@jodanga.com 

How I got in contact with this charity
In my hunt for good causes in Santa Cruz I started an internet search for organizations that were not orphanages – and came across this webpage and their corresponding facebook group. From their online communications, the coordinators of this charity are clearly passionate about what they do – and I was happy to contact them to see if we could help with the recruiting of volunteers.