At Honeyguide, we have always been more than colleagues and more than a team. We are like an extended family. Our unity is our greatest strength. – Damian Bell
Petronela grew up just outside of Arusha in the foothills of Mount Meru. She has made extraordinary strides in learning new skills and in assisting Honeyguide in the countless ways that never receive the due recognition they deserve.
Danny, a Mweka college graduate and former volunteer HWC officer, is our field monitoring officer currently based in Makame. A true “people person,” he loves what he does in this organization because he can learn and problem-solve through cooperation—with those in the office, the field, and communities.
Max is responsible for all internal operations, including supervising protection and law enforcement, infrastructure maintenance, fleet management, and logistics planning. He holds a bachelor’s degree in environmental management, and enjoys working in rural areas.
Sam is Honeyguide’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) who will lead the organization with strategic vision and operational excellence. The CEO will be responsible for driving the mission of the foundation, ensuring sustainable impact at the community level, and fostering strong relationships with partners and stakeholders.
Namnyak is a graduate of MBA from Mzumbe University and prior to Honeyguide has spent years managing microfinance schemes with community cooperatives, smallholder farms and SME’s in the world of agricultural value chains. With her experience and patience, she will build the communities capacity to manage their finances in the WMAs.
Ole Kirimbai serves not only as our Honorary member but also our elder statesman of conservation, having spent his lifetime working with communities and the Tanzanian government on issues in natural resource management. His positive energy and wisdom continues to guide Honeyguide to this day.
Tobico comes from a pastoral community in Manyara region. Holding a bachelor’s degree in Commerce & Finance from the University of Dodoma, he has helped Honeyguide’s finance department produce financial reports on time and and is responsible for managing the donor accounts and reports.
Daudi is responsible for all providing services such as logistical support, managing the workshop, construction and the M&E of all our projects. He is great in the field and has a passion for strategic planning, data collection, monitoring and analysis. He has trained over 80 rangers in the field to use smartphones for data collection.
Regina always arrives first in the morning and makes our office look immaculate. Then she brings us tea and coffee during the day, makes our guest feel welcome. She is just dedication and smiles and keeps our team feeling grateful and happy.
Saitabau is the youngest recruit from west Kilimanjaro to join the K9 unit and is based at the Manyara Ranch kennels. His gentle and positive nature is encouraging for both his work colleagues and the dogs he works with, Saitabau is very proud that he is part of this special team.
Well-known “Meleck” started working with Honeyguide since 2012 as Monitoring Officer in the field in Kilimanjaro-Amboseli Ecosystem. He is working as a special project manager overseeing our K9 unit, the Chimpanzee habituation project and the scaling up of the HWC program.
Jamal, born and raised in Arusha, is responsible for Honeyguide’s films and short videos. While he has always loved wildlife, his filmmaking gives him the opportunity to connect with nature by exploring our program areas while also working with communities.
Lizzie, as the Communications manager, is responsible for external communication on donor reporting and internal communication within the organization. She manages the library, videos and all other communication materials in the organization.
Born and raised in Mswakini Juu in Randilen, Lemuta is responsible for collecting, cleaning, and analyzing data from Randilen. His expertise in using smart apps for data analysis helps Randilen’s decisionmaking, ensuring decisions are made that enforce positive community perceptions of wildlife.
Kaaya’s commanding voice makes him perfectly suited to training village game scouts (VGS). Working in Makame and Randilen, he has trained more than 50 VGS, and will continue to train more to ensure communities are always ready to defend wildlife and nature from poachers.
Emmanuel is a Maasai from west Kilimanjaro and joined Honeyguide’s K9 unit when it was formed back in 2011. Will Powell of Canine Specialist Services said of Emmanuel ‘he is one of the best dog handlers and trackers I have ever met’; he has a unique gift of understanding exactly what his dog is capable of.
Fatma is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Biodiversity and Ecosystem Management from the Nelson African Institute of Science and Technology. She has many years of experience working in the natural resource governance sector. Her passion for people and love for wildlife shine through her governance training facilitation.
Known by many as ‘Kanunga,’ Jonas is our anti-poaching driver and mechanic in Randilen, where he is also a ranger. By sharing his experience from Enduimet, he and his team have been able to reduce poaching in Randilen. He loves seeing the environment thriving, as it shows the results of the effort he puts in with his team.
Dukuru is a young Maasai Moran from Oltukai village in Manyara Ranch, who has a passion for protecting wildlife since childhood. He tracks all patrols and is a skilled user of SMART © conservation application and cyber tracker, where he records all wildlife data and photos are uploaded on his smartphone.
Leonard is known as ‘Chinaa”, sometimes up all night protecting crops from elephants, patrolling the area during the day, Chinaa loves being a ranger and is a great 4×4 driver. He started with Honeyguide as a mechanic and was committed to learn to drive and become a ranger, he is living his dream.
Liner is a graduate from the University of Dar Es Salaam, she’s also a CPA(T). Liner has spent more than 5 years dealing with Accounting and Administration of various USAID projects, she’s ready to put in her best together with the Honey guide team in helping the Communities manage their own WMAs for their sustainability.
Damian, a Tanzanian, began working in community-based tourism and conservation before such terms even existed. n entrepreneur and visionary at heart, Damian constantly strives building the network of partners and followers of the organization. He, along with Ole Kirimbai, founded Honeyguide in 2007.
Joshua is a driver and like all our team, have multiple roles, he supports the mechanic team with all of the spare orders collection. His role ensures that the mechanical team focuses on fixing the vehicles, without worrying about the purchases. He ensures all the right spares are available at the time of need.
Honeyguide field teams always camp out, Eluid is a driver and also a cook, mechanic, navigator and just good company in camp. For the larger team trips into the field, Eluid makes sure everybody is happy and well fed.
Happiness has over a decade of experience across various organizations and a Master of Science in Human Resource Management. She is very much a people person committed to organizational development and advocacy of employees.
Kateto, or ‘Cowboy,’ was born and raised in Ngorongoro. A Mweka graduate, his passion for animals was inspired by his father, who manages a community ranch. Kateto is our anti-poaching trainer, where he helps to plan the strategic protection approach of WMAs with the management team and trains rangers how to capture poachers in accordance with proper legal procedures.
Patrick is a dedicated monitoring officer, he is responsible for collecting, analyzing and reporting on the many metrics that Honeyguide collect to monitor our results and impact. He is passionate about working alongside the local community to develop sustainable conservation management.
Samwel is a graduate of Nairobi institute of tourism and hotel management, his dream is to become a tour guide, so he joined us as a volunteer to learn about mechanics and conservation. His dreams have been put on hold because of COVID 19 and we hope one day he will be able to fulfil his dreams.
Finn is a young, daring, and focused dog with exceptional tracking skills who approaches tasks with high morale, energy and is keen to use his accurate sniffing nose to locate those hidden tracks. Finn is one of the newest members of the Honeyguide K9 team.
Emma, a recent graduate in computer science and mathematics from the Institute of Finance Management, is an enthusiastic IT support hire. Their innovative ideas and expertise have already had a positive impact on our operations, as IT is crucial for enhancing team efficiency across the organization.
Angelo has over a decade of experience as a programs manager, a background in integrated health and environment projects. As a technical overseer, he empowers his team and communities by implementing our annual workplan and strengthening WMAs programming. With a master’s degree in community development, he displays a passion for positive grassroots change.
With a Master of International Business degree, CPA Mhalafu has extensive experience overseeing finances in Ecotourism. His decade-long passion for nature drives his active involvement. Leveraging expertise, he efficiently handles financial and administrative aspects of the organization.
With 16+ years in project management for local and global entities, he brings expertise. Previously, he served as an Enterprise Development Specialist at the Community Wildlife Management Areas Consortium, contributing to Tanzania’s environmental initiatives. Passionate about fostering sustainability in Wildlife Management Areas, he advocates for professional management and inclusive local leadership in enterprise projects to drive positive change.
