Antelope Park Covid Policy 2020

The safety and well-being of our volunteers, staff and guests is our upmost priority. Therefore, the following measures are in place to prevent the spread and mitigate the risk of Covid.

A PCR test is required to enter Zimbabwe. This test must be conducted within 48 hours of departure. If you present a test outside of this time period, or fail to present a test at all, you will be tested on arrival at one of the 3 international airports (for US$60) if required. The result will be given within 2 hours.

Sanitisation, mask wearing, social distancing is mandatory around camp and while on project. All staff, guests and volunteers are required to wear a mask while in the dining areas or in close proximity to fellow staff, guests or volunteers. We implement temperature checks daily, including upon arrival.

Before mealtimes, guests and volunteers are required to be seated and invited up for meal service, to avoid overcrowding. Guests, volunteers or staff who are not wearing a mask will not be served. Hand washing before food serving is also mandatory. We have multiple cleaning and sanitisation stations, where guests, volunteers and staff will be required to wash their hands before they receive their food.

We will only accept volunteers on our weekly arrival dates, in order to prevent too many people arriving at different times. As we offer a wide range of stays from 2 weeks to 12 weeks. All staff, volunteers and guests will need to maintain the sanitisation, mask wearing, social distancing measures that have been put in place.

The only people who will be allowed to share rooms or bathroom facilities will be those who arrive as a group/on the same booking. All individual bookings arrivals will stay in their own rooms. Any volunteer staying in a room with a communal bathroom, will be assigned their own shower, toilet and wash basin. There is to be no sharing of these facilities. All individual volunteers will be assigned their own rooms. We strongly recommend volunteers do not invite anyone into these spaces. The only people who will enter the rooms, will be housekeeping; who will be required to use the designated hand washing station outside of the volunteer accommodation. Any member of the housekeeping staff who cleans the volunteer’s room will be required to wear a mask at all times, gloves and will also need to wash their hands before entering the accommodation.

We have 18 individual rooms at Antelope Park. While most of these do not have their own bathrooms, we have strict measures in place to ensure the communal bathrooms are used safely.

Antelope Park has been inspected and cleared by the ministry of health as a quarantine facility. While we do not actively accept quarantine cases, it enables any volunteer, if the situation was to arise where they needed to self-isolate, to do so in the comfort of Antelope Park and in a safe, approved way.

If a volunteer was to contract the virus, our first measure would be to get all volunteers and staff with whom the volunteer interacted onsite tested. Anyone who was to test positive, who have to immediately self-isolate at Antelope Park, in a designated area. Those who test negative we will be allowed to return to project.

Volunteers and staff undergo temperature checks daily. It is important to note that the covid situation is not as severe as in many other parts of the world. Therefore, it is important that international arrivals are sensitive to the fact that staff are weary that they have come from a country where covid is more present. This will in no way affect the great care our staff provide volunteers. It is our upmost priority that our volunteers are comfortable and safe. That is why it is vital volunteers follow all the rules and measures in place, as will our staff. Ultimately, it is very important we all do our bit to protect everyone.

All communal areas, including the kitchen, dining area, bar and decking area, coffee shop etc, are sanitised and regularly cleaned.

All of our vehicles get sanitised after each activity.

Social distancing is mandatory. Keeping a safe distance between yourself and others is vital for preventing the spread or risk of covid. This applies at all times, even around fellow volunteers and staff. In camp, there are 14 sanitations stations, including at the kitchen, dining area and volunteer accommodation. You are encouraged to bring your own personal supply of hand sanitizer whilst on project. You will also need to wear a mask when around others in camp, in the community. It is a legal requirement to wear a mask while in public whenever (including when travelling in a private vehicle.)

When out in the local community, it is absolutely essential you abide by strict rules and protocols, to protect yourself and the local community members. Our local program operators are reminding our volunteers they should ensure they continue to maintain high standards of personal hygiene, including taking particular care to regularly wash their hands. The local team has also consulted with the community partners, to ensure all members of the community are following the measures as well. Distance between yourself and the locals will be strictly enforced.

Soap is readily available throughout the camp.

Volunteers will be asked to bring their own masks to wear when interacting with others in the accommodation and at placement. Masks will be available at Antelope Park.

The accommodation and all projects will conduct intensified cleaning practices, regularly wiping down of shared spaces and commonly touched surfaces (e.g. door, faucets, handles, etc.)

All volunteers will be required to practice social distancing as recommended by the WHO and local governments.

All coordinators will wear protective gear (mask) when interacting with volunteers.

All activities are resuming as usual, with Covid secure measures in place.

If the improbable situation was to arise where Zimbabwe reverts into a lockdown, we would encourage our volunteers to return home, if the situation was to occur, with project credit to redeem at a later date. It is important to note that during the first lockdown, anyone who wanted to leave the country was able to. Ethiopian Airways carried on flying out of Harare, to Addis Ababa throughout lockdown. There were plenty of flights from Addis Ababa to Europe and North America, for those wanting to return home. In the extremely unlikely event of a volunteer not being able to leave; Antelope Park will happily offer volunteers board and lodging, at a reduced rate should it extend past their original stay.