For International Women’s Day, we spoke to Widi, Manager of our Bornean Orangutan Rescue Alliance (BORA) Rescue Centre. As the Manager of the rescue centre, Widi has her work cut out for her! The centre houses nearly 30 orangutans, many staff, and multiple activities every day. She’s an inspiring, encouraging and strong leader who also juggles motherhood while working at the centre. She enjoys everything she does at the centre, including orangutan rescues, rehabilitation and release work with the team.
What are the main challenges you face?
“When we do rescue, rehabilitation and release, we try to give a better life for orangutans in this site or in another habitat. But we also have a challenge to give them a better forest to transfer them back into. A big challenge for us is we have a lot of orangutans from the illegal pet trade and we have to think about their future, to prepare them for life in the wild. So we need a primary forest for them. Right now, there is a lot of primary forest becoming coal mines and palm oil plantations.”
The lack of viable primary forest for orangutan rehabilitation is a growing concern for Widi and the whole team at BORA.
What led you to working in this job?
“This is a good job for me because we can help orangutans so animals will be protected, especially in East Kalimantan. We can do much better for them. They cannot speak like us, who might be able to beg for help. We can help them get a better life or a second chance.”
What are some of the challenges you face as a woman working in conservation?
“It’s challenging because mostly, we are living in the forest with no proper signal, and there’s no proper electricity. I have a family, so far from here. Sometimes I need to reach them to make sure that I’m okay here.” Widi explains that there can be a negative connotation for women living in the forest. “The challenge for me is to show that as a woman, it’s okay to work in the forest. We can do anything, like anybody else. We can save orangutans, we can help animals. It’s okay, it’s normal.”
What would you tell other young women who are interested in conservation?
“This kind of job is good for everybody - also for women. As women, we can have a chance to help the animals, especially for the orangutans and conservation. We need to be brave to say they are protected and endangered species. We have to say something to the people out there. We have to do something. As a woman, you have the power.
“We have a responsibility also, as Indonesians, to say that our endemic animals have to be saved. Sometimes we’re working in the hard field - we have to go into the deep forest to do monitoring or we try to do assessments for the orangutans and there is conflict. Sometimes we need more strength or physical skills to do that. If you’re brave enough to do these things, it’s okay for you to join this kind of job.”
What do you hope will change in the future in relation to conservation?
“Orangutans are only living in Indonesia and now the orangutans are coming closer to villages, into the palm oil areas, or to the mining areas. We have to do something to say that we know orangutans are not fine. They are not okay. We have to share when something happens, to show that something is wrong here.
“At the end of the day, we want to know that orangutans can survive, can live like they are normally living in the forest - travelling, foraging for food, building a family outside in the forest. That’s my biggest hope - and all other people working in this job. Especially when we work in this rehab centre, we want all orangutans to be taken care of every single day here. We hope that someday we can release them and give them a better place to live in - like the primary forest so they can find a lot of food there. That’s the hope - that they can have a better future than now. Because we have 24 orangutans at the centre and someday I want all of them to be released.”
We hope so too, Widi! With you and your team working hard to care for and rehabilitate those orangutans, we’re sure they’ll be released to freedom and safety in the future.