We believe that informal support for volunteers is very important. A special volunteer program is launched by HEB(Hotel elephant bay) TO ACHIEVE THE PRIMARY OBJECTIVES OF THE PINNAWALA ELEPHANT ORPHANAGE .A standard volunteer placement is generally for a period of 3 months however placements can run for anywhere between 1 WEEK TO 16 WEEKS and all requests will be considered.

The Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage was started in 1975 by the Department of Wildlife on a twenty five acre coconut property on the Maha Oya River at Rambukkana. The orphanage was primarily designed to afford care and protection to the many baby elephants found in the jungle without their mothers. In most of these cases the mother had either died or been killed. In some instances the baby had fallen into a pit and in Others the mother had fallen in and died. There are only few elephant orphanages in the world. Pinnawela has now become one of the bigger orphanages and is quite well known world wide.