Projects
Family Volunteering in Borneo
From £595.00
Help to restore the forest environment, meet indigenous tribespeople and encounter incredible orangutans with your family in Borneo
Borneo,
Orangutans
From £595.00
Help to restore the forest environment, meet indigenous tribespeople and encounter incredible orangutans with your family in Borneo
Borneo,
Orangutans
By joining this wildlife safari in Borneo you and your family will become immersed in the local community and fascinating wildlife of the Borneo rainforest.
For the majority of this project you will be staying in the beautiful Sukau village from which you will take part in a variety of conservation activities. These will include taking boat trips on the Kinabatangan River in search or orangutans and pygmy elephants and helping to preserve the incredible 'corridor of life'. As well as wildlife conservation activities you will also spend time interacting with the local Orang Sungai villagers or ‘People of the River’. This will include helping to teach some of the local children in the school. This will give you a great understanding of their way of life and help them improve their english skills!
To round off the tour, you will be taken to visit the world famous Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre to see these incredible animals up close!
Volunteers on this project aim to have a positive and constructive impact on the local environment by helping to rebuild habitats which have been destroyed, and teaching members of the local community about conservation. You’ll be helping plant trees, getting involved with teaching the local school children and observing the endangered wildlife along the river banks, so there’s plenty for you to be doing if you venture to Borneo!
This is a fantastic way to teach your children how rewarding it can be to volunteer, aswell as providing an opportunity for them to experience and witness first hand how important wildlife conservation is.
Without the participation of volunteers, the project will be short on man power and funding, both of which are vital for the continued success of the programme.
This entails cruising in a boat along the river and its tributaries along the 'corridor of life', to observe the endangered wildlife roaming the forest along the river banks. On these trips you will always be on constant look out for pygmy elephants and orangutans.
This will involve tree-planting, nursery care and seedling generation, clearing invasive species and also tree growth data recording. This is crucial as currently along the banks there are areas with very few trees so it is difficult for animals to pass from one section to another and if they do it leaves them vulnerable. Therefore, tree planting will take place in sections identified as high priority, and you will work towards the creation of corridors to allow wildlife to move from one section to another.
The magical tropical rainforest of Borneo is the perfect setting for a family trek. The trek you will join involves an introduction to the flora and fauna of the rainforest and to what the rainforest traditionally offers the inhabitants in terms of medicine, food and survival. This is a great chance to ask questions and learn from an extremely experienced local guide.
As a family you will spend half a day with local school children working on conservation issues that the children deal with on a daily basis. You will be provided with a framework and the project facilitator will guide you in the planning of this session. The idea is to share information about conservation activities, both in Borneo and in your home country and also to give the local school children and yours a chance to interact and understand different cultures.
Living and contributing to the Sukau community is a big part of this project. As most lunches and dinners will be served in the homes of individual villagers and local families you may get to hear about their daily lives, chat with the children, learn their family structure and see how the Orang Sungai have been living off the rivers and jungles for centuries.
This involves the development of a continuous project, working with the community of the local village. This offers another fun way to interact with the community on various levels whilst working on a conservation project.
| Group Size | Up to 6 People |
| Meals | All Meals Included |
| Duration | 6 Nights |
| Start Dates | 6th April and 11th August 2018 |
| Minimum Age | Minimum Age 8 |
You will need to arrive into Sandakan International Airport before 4pm on the start date of your project. You will be met by a project representative in the arrivals hall and transferred by road to your first night's accommodation. The next day you will travel to the project site at Sukau.
Most nationalities do not rquire a visa to enter Malaysia. A tourist visa is provided upon arrival at the airport for up to 90 days, however, please check the Malaysian Immigration website for more information.
The Malaysian currency is the Ringgit. The conversion rate is approximately 1 MYR to 0.19 GBP.
Rebecca Glover - 2017