Last year we here at The Great Projects, in conjunction with Tourism Malaysia and Responsible Travel, ran a competition to send two people to Malaysia to partake in our Orangutan and Tribes Tour for 2 weeks.
The competition ran for about a month on Responsible Travels website and we got a record 1765 entries showing peoples serious interest in wanting to travel abroad responsibly to help save the orangutans native to Borneo. The winners will embark on an unforgettable orangutan jungle tour of the island of Borneo visiting 2 orangutan centres - the Matang Wildlife Centre and the Semenggoh Nature Reserve and 3 national parks - Bako National Park, Kubah National Park and Batang Ai National Park.
This voluntour was crafted to raise awareness of the conservation efforts made in Sarawak, Borneo, to bring harmony between people and orangutans. The 14-day/13-night voluntour gives the traveller one-day "back stage passes" to see captive orangutans being rehabilitated at Matang Wildlife Centre and the released semi-wild orangutans of Semenggoh Nature Reserve. Around this they will visit the seven different habitats of Borneo in the amazing National Park at Bako and engage in a one week trip into the rainforest. Here they will meet the descendents of the legendary headhunters of Borneo - the Iban tribes - now the custodians of the wild orangutans of Batang Ai National Park.
To celebrate the lucky winners' chance to experience this life changing opportunity we will be holding an event in London to welcome them onto this Great Project. This will be a chance to meet past volunteers to learn more about what they can expect as well as being a great chance for past volunteers to meet up again to exchange stories and catch up with each other. We will soon be announcing the winners and the location for this event here so mind this space!
We would finally like to take this chance to thank Tourism Malaysia for this amazing opportunity to collate our mutual views on responsible travel to then encourage people to travel to see the amazing sites Malaysia has to offer.
Since last year we have been working closely together to try to promote Malaysia as a destination in hope that others will share our enthusiasm for the travel destinations in this country, namely those based around orangutan protection and welfare. As our past volunteers know we run some fantastic projects there including our flagship Great Orangutan Project. So if you are a past volunteer or are considering a trip to Malaysia we urge you to consider the fore mentioned project, and invite you to be part of our community of people who on their own hope to, and together with us DO make a serious impact on both the conservation of orangutan front as well as the continued community support of the local Iban tribes.
