Your Travel Buddies

Leave Only Your Footprints

All our programmes are designed with the locals in mind first and foremost, and then volunteers and interns come to fit into the local setup, which ensures that the programmes will continue beyond the stay of external partners and volunteers. The programmes and experiences are also designed to ensure our core value of knowledge exchange takes place seamlessly.
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VETERINARY AND ANIMAL CONSERVATION

Shadow Veterinarians, Vet Nurses at Clinics, Animals Sanctuaries, Game Parks & Conservancies

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TRUSTED AND RECOGNISED

Our team has been the first Zimbabwe-based turnkey provider of cross-cultural exchanges through volunteering, and internship placements at matched organisations.

The pre-vet internship abroad programme is uniquely designed with vet, pre-vet, vet tech, vet nurses and broader animal science students with strong interest in wildlife medicine and conservation in mind. If you are keen to develop your clinical skills, including patient intake, physical examination, compiling medical records, diagnoses, interpreting test results, then selecting and administering treatment; this programme is definitely for you!

You will work alongside professional vets and vet nurses between several sites, including a 24-hour vet clinic, a wildlife rescue & rehabilitation sanctuary, a dairy farm as well as at a vet lab. It is the perfect internship to learn about veterinary science (animal care), hands-on wildlife healthcare experience, assisting in surgical procedures, and outreach clinics in local communities. Interaction with local villages and communities educating them on animal-human relations, rescue and transfer of injured, abused or orphaned animals from around the surrounding areas as well as ambulatory vet work on local farms.

What's the programme about?

You will work alongside professional vets and vet nurses between several sites, including a 24-hour vet clinic, a wildlife rescue & rehabilitation sanctuary, a dairy farm as well as at a vet lab. It is the perfect internship to learn about veterinary science (animal care), hands-on wildlife healthcare experience, assisting in surgical procedures, and outreach clinics in local communities. Interaction with local villages and communities educating them on animal-human relations, rescue and transfer of injured, abused or orphaned animals from around the surrounding areas as well as ambulatory vet work on local farms. 

What does a potential itinerary look like?
  1. Rehabilitation of wildlife 
  2. Game Park management Bush & animal behaviour training
  3. Human-animal relations
  4. Anti-poaching and game tracking/monitoring
  5. Eco-schools programme
  6. Environment and wildlife rehabilitation
  7. Community outreach and conservation awareness

WHERE WILL YOU STAY?

24-Hour Veterinary Service

The 24-hour veterinary service as its name suggests, offers round the clock clinic and surgical services to animals in Harare. It is a great place for pre-vet, vet, and vet-tech students to complete the service-learning component of the educational tour or internship hours. In addition to participating at the clinic, there are plenty of opportunities to take part in the outreach work alongside professional local vets, who from time to time participate in Rhino dehorning exercises, spay campaigns as well as community vet clinics to sterilise dogs and cats. 

Accommodation: shared rooms or dormitories. Food, towels and soap included. 

Kariba

A resort town, built on the steep hills, 370 kilometres above the Lake. Home to the Legend of the Nyaminyami ‘The River God’, which locals believe to have lived in the depths of the Lake, and was separated from the female Nyaminyami when the bridge was constructed in order to facilitate for the hydro-electric power plant that remains today. Approximately fifty thousand people were displaced on both the Zimbabwe and Zambia sides in order to make way for the construction of the project. Paradoxically, the construction of the power station is said to be the World Bank’s most successful project in the world. There are several islands and wildlife parks surrounding Kariba, including the Chewore Safari Area where Dinosaur footprints were found and are reserved to this day. 

Accommodation: Safari tented rooms on the shores of Zambezi River.

Wildlife Animal Sanctuary

No animal is turned away…Ambulatory vet service to surrounding community 

Community dog immunisation and feeding clinic once a week

University of Zimbabwe & Government Veterinary Laboratory

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE PROGRAMME
  • Multi-site internship – exposing you to the diversity of the veterinary and animal science field
  • First-hand experience inside a surgical vet clinic
  • Learn on the go with the mobile vet clinic conducting community outreach work
  • Participate in hands-on learning experience on treating injured wildlife 
  • Interact with locals, and share ideas on veterinary issues, and how to solve existing community challenges
  • Get up close and personal with wildlife within the natural habitats as well as domestic animals
  • Earn academic credit while enjoying an adventure of a lifetime

WHAT SORT OF WORK WILL I BE DOING?
  • Animal rescue expeditions & ambulatory vet clinics
  • Wildlife population control programmes, including sterilisation of domestic animals such as dogs
  • Anti-poaching activities
  • Ongoing animal game counts, data collection and reporting (wildlife research)
  • Animal clinics, immunisation of domestic animals from the surrounding communities
  • Wildlife conservation and environment outreach work within local communities and schools
  • Animal tuberculosis, rabbis, foot and mouth testing and treatment
  • Environmental management and wilderness rehabilitation
  •  

WHAT YOU NEED TO APPLY

Tiritose supports volunteers and interns coming to Zimbabwe and ensures that the experience is equally rewarding for yourself and our programme.

Intern – education /skills/work experience required

  • Only students currently enrolled in medical school or Residency are eligible for the programme as it is clinical in nature.
  • Experience within a medical or health setting would be beneficial.
  • Positive, can-do attitude.
  • Skills:  Communication, organisational, reading and writing.
  • Students or residents need to be comfortable with rural village life if they choose the rural hospital option.

You’ll need to send proof of your:

  • Education, skills and work experience in the form of a CV, documentation from your school and reference letters.
  • Current enrollment in a professional, accredited, medical or healthcare programme of education

We’ll also need:

  • A list of references we can contact to confirm your experience, organisational skills and reading and writing ability – especially when it comes to interacting with patients and taking histories to have an initial online interview with you to assess your communication skills

Pre-vet Internship Abroad Programme Highlights

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WHY SHOULD YOU APPLY?

Some of the topics covered during the internship that carry transferable credit include: animal behaviour and reproduction; practical wildlife learning (animal, bird monitoring/surveys), and environmental audits), bush and wildlife theory (ecology, outdoorsmanship); small animal care (prepare food and bottle feed orphans and reptiles, clean enclosures, clean wounds), habitat enrichment (construction of activity centres for primates, and making toys to stimulate foraging).

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Testimonials

BENEFIT THAT GOES FULL-CIRCLE – WHAT OUR PARTICIPANTS HAVE SHARED:

Stuart Smith United States, Ohio State University

This has truly been a life changing experience, especially because it was my first trip outside of the United States. The program taught me to be more open to taking new experiences, exposed me to paediatrics at the children’s rehabilitation unit, which I did not think I would enjoy.

Necrisha in Zimbabwe for her Global Health Clinical Rotation Internship with Tiritose Sustainable Travel
Necrisha Roach United States, Ohio State University

Coming to Zimbabwe for my medical internship and working with Tiritose was an interesting experience and I really enjoyed the exposure to the healthcare system, the people and the excursions

Christopher Zheng United States, Ohio State University

I was pretty happy the whole time and the Tiritose staff were very supportive. What I enjoyed most about doing my internship in Zimbabwe is that it was a new continent for me, a whole new perspective on medicine, a better appreciation for the luxuries of US.

Sola Morakinyo United States, Ohio State University

What I enjoyed most about doing my medical clinical rotation internship in Zimbabwe was seeing the differences and similarities in how medicine is practiced here vs. the U.S. and differences and similarities in disease incidence.

Van Don Williams II United States, Ohio State University

The programme was also very organised. Other than waiting on our supervising physicians at the Children’s hospital on some of the days, it was a pretty good internship. Oh! And it was made better by watching Black Panther in Africa.

Global Health Medical Rotation in Africa - Zimbabwe
Jessica Hippolyte United States, Ohio State University

I really liked the balance between the fun staff and the clinical rotations at the various hospitals in the city and the rural placement just blew me away. I was exposed to medical conditions that I would otherwise not come across back home.

Martins Ayoola-Adeola United States, Ohio State University

I had a wonderful time in Zimbabwe. There are times I find myself fantasizing about going back. The administrative staff were great and really took the time to make the trip as personalized as possible.

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