Through my time interning at DCA, I was given several opportunities to leave the office and experience the effect DCA has on the community. During my internship at DCA I attended the Kick-Off Penyusunan KLHS RPJPN 2025-2045, the PHINLA National Conference, Asian Waterbird Census 2023 in Kepulauan Seribu, waste bank, warung lestari and many other exciting events. Before this opportunity I never realised how many meetings there were for NGOs and the collaboration between NGOs, government sectors and sponsors. In particular I thought it was very interesting the collaboration between DCA and other NGOs. I think this also relates to their motto “Swooping in Unison” and how via collaboration with other companies/organisations the issue of marine debris can be dealt with more effectively. 

As I come from Melbourne, Australia I had never really considered waste management on a community level as it is an issue managed by the council in Melbourne. However as waste management is a very prevalent issue in Indonesia and after my internship experience I realised that waste management isn’t just about taking the rubbish off from the streets and stopping it from entering the waterways and later the ocean but also helping the community. Through DCA’s waste bank programs they encourage the correct disposal of each type of waste as well as providing an incentive to join the waste banks through receiving money for the amount of waste brought to the waste bank as well as the ASCA program. This is just one of the many things I learnt during my internship at DCA. 

I thought it was also very interesting that DCA aims to solve the problem from the source with all the single use plastics being used. An example of this is with their rice straws that they provide to warungs for the same price as plastic straws. However unlike plastic straws the rice straws are biodegradable and also can be eaten. Another thing I hadn’t considered before coming to DCA was textile and fashion companies' role in marine debris with sustainable fashion. I learnt that fast fashion has its impacts with many clothes finding their way to landfill after a change of catalogue and the importance of using natural materials such as cotton and wool in order to reduce the amount of microplastics finding their way into waterways. With 92 million tonnes of textiles ending up in landfill around the world every year, DCA offers workshops to many companies including fashion companies such as Sejauh Mata Memandang to address this issue.

This internship was well above my expectations as everyone who works in the office is lovely and so welcoming. As this is my first internship experience, I was a bit nervous and shy about meeting everyone in the office, especially since my Indonesian isn’t great. However this quickly was resolved with everyone being so funny and easy going that the DCA office became to feel like a second home. They made an effort to make sure I felt welcomed by playing board games in the first week of the internship along with table tennis. 

Additionally to that, whilst some companies would exclude interns from important events DCA invited me to many important meetings and events with a DCA member making a summary of everyone usually so whilst I couldn’t understand most of what was occurring in the moment, I got a summary of the meeting afterwards in English so I could understand the process of working in an NGO.

From interning in DCA it furthered my interest in marine conservation and the very prevalent issue of marine debris. Before this experience I wasn’t certain on what major I wanted to choose at university, since I’m only a 2nd year university the major is still undecided, and future career paths that could come out of it but after this internship I now can easily decide on a marine science major. DCA’s work with the PHINLA project and possibility of PHINLA 2 project is very inspiring with their community work as well as their work on islands around Indonesia which are more affected by marine debris.

Thank you for the amazing experience DCA and hopefully they can keep fighting “until 2050 where plastic will NOT outweigh the fish in the ocean”.