In recent years, our Wechat often receives moments of BBC’s animal-themed documentaries, among which the hottest one is ‘Earth Planet’. Through the lens, we are deeply touched by the ordinary yet fascinating lives of all kinds of animals across the planet, and our understandings about sloths, lemurs, chinstrap penguins, snow leopards, spider monkeys and jaguars and etc. are totally refreshed. Tens of thousands of species, created by the amazing nature, grow and live on this earth following their own habits and adapt to harsh environments. They strive to live another day with the strongest will. However, human beings’ unbridled behaviors are severely eroding their habitats; hence, animal conservation is becoming a hot topic in the public debates around the world.
More hands are always needed in the public serves to improve the living conditions of those endangered animals. In China, sea turtle conservation is still at its earliest stage, but animal conservation is never limited to the border. From April 28th to May 3rd, 2019, a dozen of WUIS students joined the international volunteer program at Bali Island, Indonesia to work with the local sea turtle conservation force.
Volunteers have participated a series of activities at the Sea Turtle Conservation Center, Bali Island. First of all, volunteers have acquired a great deal of knowledge about sea turtle and its conservation. They understood that sea turtle, as an amazing, ancient, large oceanic reptile species, has been living on this earth planet for over 200 million years. Modern civilization has made their habitat environment with more dangers: the discarded plastic bags dumped in the ocean will be mistakenly recognized by sea turtles as jellyfishes, hence will be swallowed by sea turtles and cause suffocation and death; hunting by humans, the deterioration of habitats and diseases are all causing serious crisis. In recent sub-species are already endangered. In the years, Bali government has begun to recognize the importance of sea turtle conservation. Up to today, over ten thousands of volunteers have made a contribution to sea turtle’s well-being and their breeding at the Center.
Apart from the acquisition of the knowledge, our volunteers made joint efforts in a variety of hands-on works: feeding turtles, cleansing the turtle tanks, watching turtle eggs, cleaning the beach, releasing turtles, facility maintenance, and assisting staff on caring for wounded turtles. Releasing baby sea turtles was the last activities, volunteers prayed and could not help jumping up when they witnessed those tiny creatures set footsteps against all the odds and eventually join their eternal home—the ocean
In addition to the conservation work, volunteers have thoroughly explored the exotic culture of Bali Island. They have learned about the religion-oriented local culture and history, experienced the breathtakingly beautiful scenic views and studied some daily expressions in local language.
Volunteers also explored the wild mangroves and made their adventures in the sacred Monkey Forest to breathe and touch the true sense of the great nature, which is totally different from their hectic urban life. Each volunteer has planted their own mangrove tree.
Another exciting moment in Bali island is the experience with local intangible heritage culture—Batik. Each student made a unique wax printing souvenir. Bali’s local cuisine is a must-try, the authentic Pig Roast, the famous Dirty Duck meal and the tasty Balinese parceling. Through the whole activities, volunteers have formed a new understanding about Bali Island with great depth, and this broadened their boundaries of knowledge, meanwhile also expanded their perspectives as a future global citizen.
During the Program, everyday volunteer has dedicated their efforts into the practical of sea turtle conservation and completed 30 hours of volunteer service, which finally won them this precious and meaningful volunteer certificate. This experience will not only add significance to their lives, but also may become a unique experience for their future application; the details and outcomes will also become a great content to be discussed in their future interviews.
In the six days of Bali Island sea turtle conservation program, volunteers have earned not only friendship, love and a volunteer certificate, what really matters are the ‘Consciousness doing public services’. Animal protection is deeply embedded in the hearts of every volunteer and will take roots and sprout. We believe that this is just a beginning, their love and care for animals will spread in the school and transfer to power. And this will encourage more teachers and students to build a healthier, greener and more sustainable environment for wildlife.
This time we went to Bali for a turtle volunteer protection campaign. Bali is a small island in Indonesia. It has not only beautiful scenery but also moderate temperature. During this trip, we learned a lot about local culture, religion, dance and turtle conservation. Bali’s cultural differences and distinctive cuisine make us excited. Sometimes it’s hard as we need to do some physical work, but most of the time it’s just right. For me, the most impressive thing is the release of baby turtles, because the living environment of small turtles is very bad and full of crisis. So going back to the sea was a big challenge for them. I sincerely hope that these baby turtles will survive and grow up safely in a world full of challenges.
——G7 Bowie