Live and work around rescued orangutans in Borneo
 Borneo Orangutan Survival (BOS) has teamed up with the Great Orangutan Project, a volunteer company connecting everyday people to orangutan conservation, to bring you a new and improved volunteer programme. You now have the amazing opportunity to volunteer with the orphaned babies and rescued adults in Borneo at the Samboja Lestari centre where more than 200 orangutans and 52 Malayan sunbears have found shelter from human destruction and neglect.
Without BOS, these orangutans would surely have been killed or sold into the illegal pet trade. Looking after so many orangutans and preparing them for life back in the forests is a very costly operation and so we need your help. By contributing your time and money to this project, you will enhance the lives of orangutans and sunbears through enrichment activities, preparing orangutans and sunbears for life back in the wild, and help in reforestation of previously logged lands.
About the Volunteer Expedition
Samboja Lestari (Samboja Forever) is a project that was started by BOS' founder, Willie Smits, and is located in the Indonesian state of Kalimantan, on the world's third largest island, Borneo. To read more about Samboja Lestari click here or watch founder Willie Smits on TED talks.
The BOS Volunteer Expedition gets you off your comfy sofa and into the thick of the action amongst the tropical heat of the lowland rainforests of Borneo. This is your opportunity to be at the frontline of the effort to save orangutans from extinction and you will have a privileged behind-the-scenes experience of the reality of running an orangutan rescue centre.
You will be based at the special and luxurious Ecolodge at the project itself for 4 weeks. During this time you will be involved in many activities designed to improve the orangutans' (and the sunbears') lives. As the ultimate goal is to release the orangutans, we must ensure that they do not get used to humans and do not catch a communicable disease. This means that the activities will involve no touching or cuddling baby orangutans - very good for the orangutans.
Why do we need volunteers? As part of a dedicated team of volunteers, led by our onsite facilitators, you are needed to further the enrichment of the animals to improve their quality of life, building and maintenance work on enclosures and infrastructures and tree replanting.
The good work the rescue centre already does needs your help and funding during these challenging times. Looking after each orangutan costs about AUD200 per month. With 225 orangutans, you can imagine how much money is involved in running the centre. That is why 80% of your money on a 4 week volunteer expedition goes directly to BOS Foundation. A lot of this is channelled into resources and materials, and a portion goes towards food and accommodation, which also helps provide employment to many local people, who benefit directly from the project.
Your trip to Borneo and your participation in the volunteer expedition can now directly help BOS progress the rehabilitation and release of the resident orangutans. Never before have everyday people been able to connect so closely with their favourite cause and feel for themselves the emotions and challenges conservationists face in saving the endangered animals of Borneo.
 Become the change you want to see in the world and book as a volunteer. Places are limited and the volunteer expedition is ideal for a gap year project, career break, sabbatical or career change working in the challenging yet fulfilling field of wildlife conservation.
The volunteer expedition is run onsite by WOX, founding body of The Great Orangutan Project in Borneo.
To find out more:
Please visit our official partner, Great Orangutan Project’s website
To book onto this programme, please click on this booking form link
For other occasional overseas volunteer opportunities, click here
For Australian volunteer opportunities, click here
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