点评:I volunteered at RAREC for a month. I was supposed to stay three.
Let me start by saying, almost none of the staff members there are happy. I think 1 or 2 are, and the rest are not. Most everyone leaves early.
Unprofessionalism:
-The directors will talk about firing a staff member to a different staff member, instead of addressing the issue with the member they are having an issue with. They have done this in front of numerous other workers while the worker they were talking about wasn't present.
-The communication with John and Katthya is terrible. For some reason while I was working there, Katthya would almost never communicate things to me that were important, she would instead communicate them to another staff member to then relay it to me. This caused some frustrating issues.
-General followthrough is really lacking in most areas at RAREC. This made doing my job difficult at times. You cannot trust that anything will get done that they say they will do (and you will hear this comment as a warning from many staff members).
Unsanitary conditions:
-Up until just before I left, our dinner would be cooked at lunchtime (11am/12pm) and left sitting on the counter in a warm room until we ate between 6 and 6:30. Chicken, beef, rice, etc, all left out unrefrigerated.
-While I was there, everyone got super sick (fever, throwing up, diarrhea, extreme fatigue, sleeping all day) and not once did anyone go to the doctor to get checked out. There was something at RAREC making all the staff/volunteers sick and John suggested it's because we were just adjusting to the environment. That is impossible, because a lot of those people had already been there for months, and people were dropping like flies one after the other. One person who was sick went home and was positive for e coli. AKA poop in the water. We asked them to sample the water and they lied and said they took the water sample but they actually never did. They promised to have it by a certain date, and over 10 days later, still no results. When me and the volunteer coordinator asked about it (separately) we were ignored until I followed up again.
-A rat lives in the kitchen
-The water they use to wash vegetables to be cooked or used in salads comes from the sink which comes from the lake (where our sewage drains directly into) which I was told by the director John is not treated with chemicals. In his words, the lake has thousands of gallons of water in it and tons of rainwater, essentially diluting it and making it safe.
-We also wash our hands, bodies, and plates with this water.
The animals:
-A lot of the animals are in cages that are too small for them. RAREC puts so much money into the monkeys that are likely to never be released. They don't put enough money into the animals that have a much higher chance of being released.
-I heard from the vets that they often didn't have enough food for the animals by the end of the week.
-The monkeys have been fed dog food, which I was told by vets is not good for them
-There is often not enough enrichment at all in the cages. The animal team needed rope to hang up leaves for the animals and had asked for it more than a month before getting it. This was after I brought it up and John laughed and said they don't need rope to hang leaves. Are they supposed to put them on the floor then? Shortly after this meeting he did go out and buy some rope and the staff/volunteers were finally able to hang up the enrichment.
-The animals' medicine is kept in a fridge in a place where the backup generator doesn't reach. The electricity goes out a lot and sometimes for a whole day. I was told by the vets that this medicine is no longer useful at all (according to peer review studies) after it's been unrefrigerated for a long time. This is a huge issue.
Other:
-They are not transparent with their expenses. They will not share their budget AND actual expenses with everyone. Everyone wonders where all the money goes. Some people are paying thousands of American dollars to be there and yet it took months to get simple locks for the monkey cages so they wouldn't escape.
-The director's family have a VERY nice living space on site, while ours is just awful. We wonder if they pay to live there?
-If you are a long term staff member, you will have the worst of the living accommodations. Mold is on your mattress and it will grow on your backpack, clothes, etc. The short term volunteers get the much nicer rooms. Not a big deal, but still makes you scratch your head.
翻译:我在 RAREC 做了一个月的志愿者。我本应该待三个月。
首先我要说的是,那里几乎没有一个员工是快乐的。我认为有一两个人是快乐的,其余的都不快乐。大多数人都早早离开了。
不专业:
-主管会将解雇一名员工的事情告诉其他员工,而不是与他们有问题的员工解决问题。他们当着众多其他员工的面这样做,而他们谈论的员工却不在场。
-与 John 和 Katthya 的沟通很糟糕。不知何故,当我在那里工作时,Katthya 几乎从不向我传达重要的事情,而是将它们传达给其他员工,然后再转达给我。这导致了一些令人沮丧的问题。
-RAREC 的大多数领域确实缺乏一般的后续行动。这有时让我的工作变得困难。你不能相信他们说会做的事情会完成(你会听到许多员工将此评论视为警告)。
卫生条件恶劣:
- 在我离开之前,我们的晚餐都是在午餐时间(上午 11 点/中午 12 点)烹制,然后放在温暖房间的柜台上,直到我们在 6 点到 6 点半之间吃。鸡肉、牛肉、米饭等,都没有冷藏。
- 我在那里的时候,每个人都病得很厉害(发烧、呕吐、腹泻、极度疲劳、整天睡觉),没有人去看医生检查。RAREC 有某种东西让所有员工/志愿者生病,约翰认为这是因为我们只是在适应环境。这是不可能的,因为很多人已经在那里呆了好几个月,人们像苍蝇一样一个接一个地死去。一个生病的人回家后被检测出大肠杆菌阳性。也就是说,水里有粪便。我们要求他们取水样,他们撒谎说他们取了水样,但实际上他们从来没有取过。他们承诺在某个日期之前送来,但 10 多天过去了,仍然没有结果。当我和志愿者协调员(分别)询问此事时,他们一直不理我们,直到我再次跟进。
-厨房里有一只老鼠
-他们用来清洗蔬菜(用于烹饪或制作沙拉)的水来自水槽,水槽来自湖泊(我们的污水直接排入其中),主任约翰告诉我,湖泊没有经过化学处理。用他的话说,湖里有数千加仑的水和数吨雨水,基本上稀释了水并使其变得安全。
-我们也用这种水洗手、洗澡和洗盘子。
动物:
-很多动物被关在对它们来说太小的笼子里。RAREC 为可能永远不会被释放的猴子投入了太多资金。他们没有为被释放的可能性更大的动物投入足够的资金。
-我从兽医那里听说,到周末,他们经常没有足够的食物给动物。
-猴子们被喂了狗粮,兽医告诉我这对它们不好
-笼子里的食物通常都不够。动物团队需要绳子来挂动物的树叶,他们一个多月前就要求了。这是在我提出这个问题之后,约翰笑着说他们不需要绳子来挂树叶。那么他们应该把它们放在地板上吗?这次会议结束后不久,他确实出去买了一些绳子,工作人员/志愿者终于能够把食物挂起来了。
-动物的药物放在备用发电机无法到达的冰箱里。经常停电,有时停电一整天。兽医告诉我,这种药物在长时间不冷藏后就完全没有用了(根据同行评审研究)。这是一个大问题。
其他:
-他们的开支不透明。他们不会与大家分享他们的预算和实际开支。每个人都想知道所有的钱都花到哪里去了。有些人花了数千美元来到这里,却花了几个月的时间才给猴笼装上简单的锁,防止它们逃跑。
-主任一家在现场有一个非常好的居住空间,而我们的却很糟糕。我们想知道他们是否付费住在那里?
-如果你是长期工作人员,你的住宿条件会最差。你的床垫上有霉菌,背包、衣服等上也会长霉菌。短期志愿者的房间要好得多。没什么大不了的,但还是让你摸不着头脑。