Leadership and Community Engagement in Borneo

To date our project work in Borneo has included building a children's development center, building a new community center, refurbishing kindergartens, constructing foot and hanging bridges, marine conservation and reforestation projects. Our projects are selected in partnership with the local community, according to their needs. New and ongoing projects include installing new community toilets, building a village community hall and a volleyball court.

The group then has some time to think deeply about their goals for the week; in a framed, student led discussion forum. In Camp Bongkud we are working in collaboration with the surrounding community and an important part of the process of identifying the group's goals is a broader understanding of the problems faced by the area and our combined aims in tackling them. Through that understanding, leading to goal identification and student led planning, the group can start creating and working towards their own objectives.

On your final day, there will be a gathering whereby your group can handover the work you have done to students and teachers. There will be a proud moment of reflection as you look at what you have achieved and the positive impact you have made.

A student focused discussion of Leadership, its challenges, models and aims. The students will be asked to think about these issues particularly in the context of their current environment and activities. What has worked, what hasn't? Are we on schedule for our own aims? How could we do things differently?

Enjoy a wildlife observation cruise where you can see animals such as the long-nosed Proboscis monkeys, alongside the different species of Leaf monkeys and Macaques. You can even see wild orangutans preparing their nests for the night in the treetops next to the river.

Get involved in vital forest regeneration work such as seed collection, forest restoration and learning about ethnobotany.

Enjoy a visit to the world-renowned Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary. Here they take in and care for orphaned orangutans and rehabilitate them back into the wild. No visit to Borneo would be complete without seeing these incredible primates, and arriving at feeding time provides an unforgettable opportunity to see these guys up close and interacting with each other.

Sandakan was once host to an exotic cast of foreign interests; German, Arab, and Indian traders, Dutch and Chinese planters, and pearl divers, but it was sadly razed to the ground during the Second World War. After the war, a roaring timber trade blossomed here with wood from Borneo imported all over the world, so much so that for a time, there were more millionaires per head here than anywhere in the world. Sabah's second city is dotted with religious relics, haunting cemeteries and stunning colonial mansions.

Visit the Sun Bear Conservation Centre in Sepilok, a rescue and rehabilitation center for the endangered Bornean Sun Bear.

Throughout the program, we will set time aside time for discussion, guided reflection, and time to write reflections on self-discovery and what we have learned. "We do not learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on experience" - John Dewey