Wanicare

I'm choosing not to share too many details in order to stay anonymous. However, I will say there is new staff since all of the previous reviews. From what I heard about Cikananga/Wanicare before, it sounds amazing.

However with the current situation-- I found the staff very lacking in support in many ways. They make interns primarily clean, you don't have a say in any decisions (even really tiny ones), and you don't learn anything.

You're severely underfed for what you pay, and there's no markets close by to supplement your food. You could maybe get a candy bar for breakfast from the tiny store down the road, but no fruits/vegetables. You also only get rice, fried tempeh, fried tofu (it was so awful that none of us touched it), small amount of fried meat, fried flour-based thing, and some times a tiny bit of vegetables. Everything come fried, except the rice. The food clearly wasn't nutritious and in addition to that it was served in such tiny amounts. People were about to kill each other over who got the last piece of greasy tempeh. You also will get woken up many times throughout the night and are physically overworked when cleaning.

My biggest problem though was that I didn't learn anything. It felt like a waste of my time and money.

In june 2012 I completed my internship here. It....Was... Amazing. I have travelled quite a bit world wide, and Indonesia has really left a stain on my heart. The people are friendly, the culture is something different to our every day life, and the scenary is worth making post cards of, and the animals are something else.

The internship itself was very educative. I do Wildlife Management, and a lot of my theoretical elements featured in the fieldwork. We did the very basic things such as cleaning, feeding, preparing food, enriching, and also helping with a few minor medical procedures.
The animals found at PPSC are animals you would not easily find elsewhere in the world. Cassowary, cackatoos, orang-utans, macaques, leaf monkeys, crocodiles, eagles, and so much more!
Aside from the basic fieldwork, we also went out on education programs. As a cherry ontop, we saw real WILD gibbons... Who else would experience that?
At PPSC there are also breeding programs in progress. This is also really interesting, and its amazing to see how people in developing countries have to improvise with what they have. It teaches you a lot!
So what more than having breakfast with rice fields in your view, eating local food every day, experiencing cultures, and looking after animals you have never even seen in the zoo before?
If you are looking for a great practical experience, with rare animals, and different lifestyles, this is the right place to be!

In November 2010 I went with four friends to Indonesia to volunteer in the PPSC rescue center for three months. These three months I have learned so much and had some amazing experiences! Working with the animals is a dream come true. At that time we worked with Orangutans, Javan leopard, Sunbears, Cassowarries, Leaf monkeys, Macaques, Crocodiles, Gharials, Parrots, Cockatoos, Warty pigs, Turtles, Tortoises, Pythons, Leopard cat and many more! Every aspect during this internship is interesting, new, full of adventure and especially unforgettable! Moments you'll never forget in your life! Your job is to take care of the animals in the rescue center. Preparing food, making enrichment, cleaning animal shelters, release animals back in the wild and much more! For me, this internship was three months of time, three days in mind and ten years in experience!