Maya’s Story: Internship at ROLE Foundation

My internship at R.O.L.E. foundation is over. Six months of collaboration and continuous gaining of knowledge in which I have had the opportunity to get to know the local community and the environmental problems first-hand, as well as to work with inspiring people, committed to find solutions to these environmental issues that affect the island of Bali. In these six months, I have had the opportunity to dedicate myself to different tasks within the foundation. In the beginning, I was involved in the project of the Health Ocean Center with the aim of presenting to guests a rich content related to the problems that the marine world faces today. To do this, we collect information, filter and analyze, summarize and present clearly and directly. The Health Ocean Center is already open and is visited by dozens of people that came to the Eco Park every week.

After that, I had several responsibilities for the organization, among others, designing the Jamu Bar and the Waste Management area, creating the informative panels for the ​​Health Effect and Poor Waste Management area, helping with the interactive tours and trainings of the Eco Park, help with the discussions in the Zero Waste conferences, participate in beach cleanups, investigation about Subak System in Bali and design of the informational panels for the Eco Park.

All these jobs have made me learn and grow as a worker, as well as acting based on my values. Thanks to this work I have learned to think actively about the environmental problems that surrounds us, especially the problem of waste. In addition, I created social ties with the local community and learned about the culture that surrounded me. As I said, I learned to have a clear conscience about the size of the problem and about the bad waste and what is this doing to the health of the human being and ecosystems. I also gain more strength and motivation to fight this problem and I hope I have become an agent of change that will continue to apply knowledge my own country. It is visible that the problem of garbage in Bali, and actually all around the world, is an urgent problem that we can’t ignore, and that a better cooperation between organizations, companies and governments is needed to find a permanent solution.

Thank you R.O.L.E foundation for this experience!

Written by Maddalen Diaz

I’m a Basque girl who’s been living between Basque Country and Portugal since 2012. I studied environmental science at the University of the Basque Country and a Master’s Degree in Ecology, Environment and Territory at the University of Porto. I’ve been worked as an Environmental educator the last year.