Program Reviews

I volunteered for a week and I had a great time in Pulau Perhentian. We taught 9 years old kids how to create e-mail account, how to send mails to forward and attaching pictures in mail. Then we did beach cleanups. We also learned how to make kuih and it was great! Then we went for traditional Malay dinner and the food was amazing. Besides that, we painted school library. We also taught English to village ladies. They were so enthusiastic. We also had awareness program about protecting and conserving marine life. Finally, we went for snorkeling tour, the Ecoteer members helped me throughout the tour because i am not a good swimmer. I managed to swim and look around beautiful corals, turtles and various fishes with the help of Ecoteer members. To put it in a nutshell, it was a great experience!

never done anything more amazing and more wonderful than this. english club with the children was fantastic, pastry making with the locals is a special experience, and the snorkling tour is simply unforgettable!

I spent two weeks with Ecoteer on the Perhentian Islands and I had an amazing time. Taking part in a range of activities I wouldn't be able to do at home, meeting new people and being able to look around the islands sums up the fortnight. Everyone I met was fun and friendly and the activities were varied. The atmosphere was laid back but all activities were still completed and done so to a proper standard. I had a great time, particularly liked the snorkelling.

Thoroughly enjoyed my 2 weeks on this program and recommend it highly. Loved the challenge of the trek and enjoyed being taught about, and how to use camera traps. Throughout the two weeks the staff were lovely and the whole project was well organised. The food and accomodation was also of a good quality.

Due to the limited time, my experience was about 2 weeks only, it was too short but still see, feel, and learn a lot. Wong, Waipak, and the keepers taught me many things while we were working or resting. They taught me mot only about the species, but also the rainforest ecology, the policy, management, difficulties and so on. Besides, Wong introduce many other people who were also working or volunteering in Sepilok.

The works do make you sweat a lot, and the insects were like everywhere while your are working... But every minute at BSBCC was worth!! BSBCC might be the only (few) places that you have the chance to taking care sun bears with many enthusiastic people, and also really gain some knowledge from the working.

It was a great privilege to work as a volunteer for the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Centre (BSBCC) at Sepilok for four weeks. My first day commenced with an induction by the Sun Bear keepers. I was introduced to all Sun Bears, safety procedures were explained and the keepers demonstrated how to perform the work required. I assisted the keepers by preparing food, cleaning pens and making enrichment for the bears. The keepers were a pleasure to work with and my enrichment ideas were welcomed. The bear house is well designed and easy to work in. The neighbouring outdoor enclosure is a large primary forest area with many tall trees and plenty of shade. This area allows the bears to exhibit natural bear behaviour e.g. climbing trees, digging, breaking apart rotten logs searching for insects. As a volunteer you really get to know and recognise the bears individually. They all have different pale orange-yellow markings on their chest and all have their own personality. I particularly enjoyed observing the bears in their forest enclosure and during their enrichment activities.

While working as a volunteer I observed first hand the hard work, long hours and dedication of Siew Te Wong (CEO and Founder of BSBCC) and Wai Pak (BSBCC Project Manager). They are great ambassadors for the Sun Bear. They are extremely committed to helping the Sun Bear. I feel extremely privileged to have worked with such dedicated people and remarkable animals. I will miss the people and the bears but look forward to coming back and seeing how the bears have developed and progressed to their final destination, their true home, THE FOREST.

It is hard work in the hot humid jungle environment, but i love hard work, so it was perfect. You get to see & know so much about the bears everyday. We saw all kinds of other animals in the rainforest there too, orangutans, red leaf monkeys, macaques, snake, hornbills & countless other birds. You can learn so much about the precious eco system of the rainforest, both flora & fauna, from the centre's founder wong. You also learn lots about conservation & other wildlife issues from all the other people there. It is an experience i will never forget & will cherish till the day i die. & also a really important cause to support.

This was the first time I had done a volunteering program and I was really surprised by how much i got out of the 7 days.

The organizers and fellow workers at the conservation are just fantastic and extremely helpful to ensure that you get the most out of your experience.

I went with a friend and she had done a lot of volunteering in the past and classed the accommodation as the "hilton" of volunteering programs - so in short excellent accommodation and facilities.

Each day consists of something different and essentially involves you in the husbandry of the various animals. The week before we arrived, a baby sun bear "Badue" was bought to the center and its hard not to fall in love with an animal like that. So if you are animal lover, this is for you.

You also get to do some manual labor, which for me was the most enjoyable, being stuck behind a computer for 15 hours a day at work means not a lot of time to get my hands dirty and the cage enrichment/building was really enjoyable - i.e. start something from the beginning and watch something get built from the ground up.. if i went back i would probably take a power saw though! A lot of wood to cut!!

I would highly recommend this to someone who enjoys animals and wants to give a little something back to well deserved cause.

I am a HUGE animal lover, so to be able to work with/learn about/take care of a variety of wild animals was an amazing experience. The staff at the Center are super friendly, the program people want to make sure you get the most out of the experience, and working with the animals is truly priceless. I can not say enough good things about this experience. Each day you will help clean and feed a different type of animal so you can learn about each one (birds, monkeys, baby bear, and of course the amazing orangutans).....and you only have to participate at the level you are comfortable with. I truly recommend this program if you are interested in wildlife and would like to help/contribute in some small way to their daily happiness.

When I first saw the advert to teach English as a volunteer in Thailand, I was a bit apprehensive
because it meant that I would be arriving in a foreign country on my own. I need not have worried
because June the Volunteer Organiser met me and she was so friendly and quickly put me at ease.

We travelled to Surin the following day to the volunteer accommodation. The house is lovely, it's only
about three years old, very modern with lovely wet rooms. June the Volunteer Organiser only lives 3 minutes walk away. In the evening we would go to June's house or she would bring us home cooked
food. The food was lovely and June is an amazing cook. June did everything to make my trip as
worthwhile as possible and would take me out in the evening to sample the area's attractions.

Each day the volunteers would be driven to the school where we were teaching. The Director and
the teachers of the school made you feel most welcome and had great respect for you.
The teaching wasn't difficult and the children were most respectful. They really enjoyed the lessons
and the input from foreign teachers.

I would recommend volunteering to teach English to everyone. It's such a worthwhile experience and
I am so pleased that I did it and will never forget the wonderful children that I taught