I volunteered for a week in December 2019 at the Friends of the National Parks Foundation (FNPF)’s Bali Wildlife Rescue Center in Tabanan. The accommodations were very comfortable and there were good places to eat within walking distance. As a volunteer, you help the animal keepers take care of the resident animals. The veterinarian Rinni, the animal keepers Samson, Agus, and Komang, the night watchman Gede, Pak Damai (driver and other) and the FNPF CEO, Drh. (Veterinary) I. Gede Nyoman Bayu Wirayudha were all very kind and welcoming. The folks here, especially the animal keepers, work extremely hard and are incredibly funny and nice. If you want an opportunity to learn about taking care of rescued endangered Indonesian wildlife, this is a good place to start. The week I was there, a female Javan Langur (referred to her as a leaf monkey) that was left for dead after stealing her baby was admitted. I hope she survived and could be released even though they had to amputate her tail. There are other critically endangered wildlife being cared for as well, including a young (4-5 year old) sun bear whose mother was probably killed to take her as a cub (hope she gets to live out her life in a sanctuary in Borneo some day soon), a bear cat, a few critically endangered Javan Slow Loris’, Bali Starlings and Black-Winged Myna birds. I highly recommend volunteering at this wildlife rescue center.…
After working in Borneo FNPF centre for a week our group came to Nusa Penida FNPF centre for 5 days. This is a great place, with warm and educated staff, clean facilities, wonderful views, delicious food, gorgeous nature and lots to learn and do! The program was very organised, busy (in a good way) and rewarding. In our time here we built nest boxes, nursery work, learnt about local birds and wildlife, visiting local schools for english lessons and more. If you want to take a day off to explore the beautiful coast line of Nusa Penida, there are plenty of options available. Overall wonderful experience and home to come back soon.
Great place with extremely friendly staff! Stayed one month volunteering at the foundation, and they are doing an excellent job with the animals. Everyday we work from 8 am, until 16 pm, with a 3 hours break for lunch and rest. If you want to explore Bali just let they know and you can take some days off, tabanan is not far from Ubud, Tanah Lot and Canggu, you can easily do a day trip. I really want to back here, and I will try to keep helping them from Brazil!!
I came to the centre to check it out to volunteer next year. Dr. RINI showed more around and the staff animal keeper Agus showed me more of the centre and the volunteer area. I found the staff very friendly and ended up having lunch with Agus and the 2 volunteers who are currently working at the centre. They were all very friendly and helpful, so I plan to return next year to stay and volunteer for a week or two
The local staff do the best they can with what they have. They went out of their way to solve any problems encountered. There were very few volunteers at the time we were there so we did not have to share the toilet and shower facilities (not that it would have mattered). We were not offered a key to lock our room. I think they just expected people to be honest and principled. I guess I could have insisted on having a key. I thought I read somewhere that we had to supply passport photos and copies of our passport for registration purposes. Nobody asked for anything. Similar to what another reviewer wrote, the amount of volunteering was disappointing: 1 hour in the morning and another hour or so in the afternoon. I do not recall reading this information in their handbook or on their website. (I should have checked here on Trip Advisor!) With the locals human resources and the unknown volunteers who come, it would be hard to have something more structured. There are certain activities that are repeated like the bird monitoring or the teaching but I felt a briefing the night before might have made things appear more organized. I had expected that it we had to go to another location, FNPF would have provided the transportation. Apparently, the van was broken down, so we got on the back of other volunteers' scooters. In hindsight, we should NEVER had. The roads are bad and we had no helmets. What if there had been an accident? We did go by van that had no seat belts to teach English. Normally, there are two groups - kids and adults. I was given the adult group to teach. So I prepared a lesson on gathering their personal data, their learning styles etc before teaching them about fruit and verbs to go with cooking. Only when we got to the "school" which was actually someone's house, was I told that the adults would not be coming because they were preparing for a ceremony. Could the people not have informed FNPF or could FNPF checked? I spent an hour preparing for a lesson (writing it up, preparing cards and downloading videos) that will never be used and an hour I can't get back! The actual experiences we got to do were bird monitoring (three times), planting seeds in the nursery (2 times), fixing the fence (once), teaching children (once), beach clean-up (once), repaired the netting above the nursery (once). There was the option to help paint a mural. I understand FNPF doesn't know what to expect of volunteers' abilities or interests. But could they ask and try to get a best fit for FNPF and the volunteers? We were told that FNPF was not hotel so would not be providing any such services. No problem. But they might consider just cleaning off the beds from the debris that falls on ceiling. Okay, it wasn't all bad. Our room had a private balcony from which we could watch the Bali Stirling eat the papaya right off the tree. There is wifi. You can walk thru the forest/gully/ravine down to the Mini-Markt in 10 minutes. There are a few 'warungs' on the road as well as 2 places to do laundry. So there is not a whole lot to do when not volunteering. Most people end up renting a scooter so they can get out and about to visit or to collect money from the Western Union. One of the cooks took me to the market and let me watch her cook.…
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