VOLUNTEERING AT REMUS MEMORIAL HORSE SANCTUARY

When you apply to be a Volunteer with Remus you are sent a form and with this form is a list of areas in which you can help,  i.e. office work, work with animals, maintenance etc., and you then tick any of the areas you would be interested in helping with.  This is excellent as it means you do not go to the Sanctuary and get given work in which you either are not happy with or are incapable of carrying out

Before becoming a Volunteer an Induction is held in which the Sanctuary Policy Guidelines are explained covering what to do on arriving at the Sanctuary, Safety in the workplace, professionalism, Fire warnings, health and wellbeing of the animals and general information of day to day running of the Sanctuary.  Each volunteer is given a booklet containing all this information so that they can refer to it at any time.  Fire training, the emergency procedure plan, Health and Safety, and manual handling are all explained and, again, this information is given to each volunteer to enable them to refer to it and remember it.  The volunteers are given a tour of the Sanctuary with specific attention being given to fire extinguishers, fire exits and warning signs around the Sanctuary.  At the end of the induction each Volunteer has to sign a receipt of the induction and training.

We have a safe environment to work in and everyone is involved in keeping this in place clean and tidy to ensure it stays that way.   Regular fire training takes place. Each year all volunteers have to attend a Health and Safety meeting not only to go over all the polices laid down.  Any new measures would be imparted to the volunteers as and when they took place.

The Sanctuary fully understands and supports the volunteers motivation for volunteering Without volunteers, like most charitable organisations, it would be unable to function and by using the Volunteers in the capacity and roles they have chosen it means the Sanctuary benefits and the Volunteers enjoy carrying out their tasks and get fulfilment from it.  Full support and help is always available to volunteers and we have a named person to go to for any support needed and this person is our Duty Officer.  The Duty Officer’s name is featured prominently on a board in the main block near the offices, along with the names of all the volunteers who are there on that day.  This ensures that should there be a fire it is known who is on site.

Volunteers are treated as valued members of the organisation and are kept informed of what is taking place.  They are treated as responsible people but if they need help they can always get it.

I have found the Sanctuary to be not only patient and helpful with volunteers but it allows you to take courses which you are interested in and to use the knowledge you gain through these at the Sanctuary.  For example, we have a lady who professionally carries out Shiatsu (a horse massage which produces beneficial effects on the horses) and we were asked if any volunteers were interested in learning the basics of this.  A day’s course was arranged for those of us who were.  We have been allowed to use this knowledge which is rewarding as the horses really enjoy it and at the same time it is beneficial to their health problems.  This course is ongoing because as new volunteers want to learn another course is arranged.  Obviously the volunteers taking part pay for the course and the money is never taken from the Sanctuary funds.  I took part on the course and regularly carry out Shiatsu on the horses and thoroughly enjoy it.

At the Sanctuary some volunteers, including myself, were interested in Bach Remedies for the horses and, again, it was arranged for us to have a course on it.  We are now able to apply this to the benefit of the horses.

The same has applied to the use of herbs for the horses.  We use herbs which years ago the horses would eat from the hedgerows and fields, for example hawthorn, nettles, dandelion etc. but as we have taken a lot of hedgerows out and use pesticides a lot of these have disappeared.  We have found that the horses benefit from having these and, again, the volunteers are helped to learn about them.

No stone is left unturned to help the animals have a good quality of life and no stone is left unturned to help the volunteers feel valued, useful and their knowledge expanded in areas they are interested in.

Working as a volunteer for the Remus Horse Sanctuary is very rewarding and if you are interested in a particular area they will encourage you and help you to do well.

VOLUNTEERS ARE ALWAYS NEEDED AT REMUS TO UNDERTAKE ANY TASKS INCLUDING OFFICE WORK, WORKING WITH THE ANIMALS, ORGANISING, ODD JOBS, FENCING, PROMOTIONS ETC ETC

Volunteer details here