Divers Clean Action (DCA) is an amazing NGO start-up dedicated to the conservation of Indonesia’s marine environment. They run programs centring on debris clean up; data collection; community outreach, education, and empowerment; waste management; and more.

For the past month, I have been interning with DCA along with another Australian undergrad – Emma – through a summer program run by the Australian Consortium for ‘In-Country’ Indonesian Studies (ACICIS). We were given the opportunity to shadow the DCA  team for a range of activities and learn about all the work they do, and how NGO’s fit into the environmental conservation scene in Indonesia.

As an environmental engineering student, and as someone who has been involved in NGO’s and climate activism in the past, I found this experience incredibly rewarding, not only for consolidating the knowledge and experience I already had, but also for providing me with new perspectives, experiences, and contexts in which this sort of work takes place. With DCA I also got to see close-up some of the processes that and steps involved in developing collaborations and making actual policy and social changes. At all the events (and around the office), I was surrounded by experts or academics in the fields of climate and marine debris related science, and I was able to ask questions and learn from them in informal ways.

With DCA, Emma and I had the opportunity to try so many new experiences, from attending national conferences, to bird surveys, microplastic sampling, diving training, late night board games, translating and mangrove planting!

Through interning with NGO’s such as DCA, students can get a real idea of how their study and field might fit into the environment, and are able to develop their goals and dreams for the future. They also get the opportunity to do trainings and workshops in which they can connect to nature and the environment, just like I did!