Our Team
Find out more about our amazing team.
Director
Anne-Marie Soulsby
Anne-Marie is the ‘hub’ of Conservation Interaction. She has an undergraduate degree in Environmental Science, a Masters in Conservation Biology and has volunteered on three conservation projects in Africa. She also has over eight years of business experience in a variety of roles, involving project management, customer service, sales and analytical skills. She is passionate about sharing knowledge and increasing the benefits to all by working together to create a better way of life, whilst respecting the environment.
Anne-Marie grew up listening to the radio in the UK and understood from her various field work positions in Africa radio's crucial role in bringing information to rural area communities. She became familiar with knowledge sharing processes whilst working within the telecommunications sector. Whilst volunteering for the Institute of Zoology she recognised that although research is often conducted and communicated by scientists, this information rarely reaches the people who are affected by conservation the most. She founded Conservation Interaction to rectify this issue, along with other environmental opportunities to provide solutions for identified problems.
Senior Broadcast Journalist
Mandolin Kahindi
Mandolin studied at the University of Dar es Salaam and achieved a certificate in Journalism and Mass Communication in 2003. He followed this by completing a Diploma in Journalism in 2012. Since then he has been a freelance journalist for several newspapers including Daily Times, Mwananchi Newspaper and This Day. In 2006 he worked as the sports news editor, presenter and journalist for Radio Ukweli FM in the Morogoro region. There is where he started producing environmental programs. In 2010, he became the manager of Music Crossroads Tanzania, which organised music festivals and music workshops in different regions. His biggest challenge was coordinating the Music Crossroads Interregional Festival where more than 19 music bands from Africa and Europe countries participated.
Mandolin dreams of becoming the Minister for Environment and Natural Resources so that he can contribute new ways in overcoming challenges facing our society which are mostly caused by climate change. He has been a valuable asset in the start-up phase of Conservation Interaction, assisting in the collection of data, processes and information required to produce proposals, budgets and pilot episodes. He possesses a great set of production skills, which have been used to create the content and audio sections of the pilot episodes. Outside of journalism, Mandolin enjoys composing songs, reading and football.
Chairperson
Fidelis M. A. Wamara
Fidelis was born in Bukoba but his ancestral roots are Karagwe District in the Kagera region where both of his late parents hailed from. He originally studied Economics at the University of Dar es Salaam and has worked as a Socio-Economic Development Consultant since 1987. He started his career after graduating from the University by being employed by a British development firm and gained a multitude of experience, including the effects and impacts of various project interventions and government or donor backed service deliverables, capacity building, project conception, formulation, implementation and impact analysis. He became a freelance consultant in 1993.
Since then he has worked with several international development agencies working on many conservation projects. These include a baseline survey of the famous Jozani forest in Zanzibar in 1997 using a community based approach; designing of phase II of Water for African cities program (water and sanitation) for Dar es Salaam; and the final evaluation of marine and forestry projects in Pemba.
In his own time, Fidelis offers his services free of charge to help form community based socio-economic associations by providing constitution assistance, record keeping and accounting skills. His real passion is his own coastal savannah forestry conservation project in Mwera, Gezaulole, Dar es Salaam. Here he has forty-five acres of land that he has dedicated as a nature conservation area, which he has been working on since 2003 to create a nature park with indigenous botanical gardens. His aim is to restore indigenous vegetations, provide sanctuary to indigenous fauna, display cultural heritage and educate visitors about tropical horticulture as part of an eco-tourism attraction. The project has already managed to restore hundreds of marginalised species of flora and fauna by providing a conducive and safe habitat.
Treasurer
Method A. Kashonda, FCCA, FCPA (T), MBA
Method Anatoli Kashonda qualified as an accountant in 1972 and was admitted to Fellowship of The Chartered Association of Certified Accountants (ACCA), in 1982. He is also registered by the National Board of Accountants and Auditors Tanzania in the category of Fellow Certified Public Accountant. He obtained an MBA degree in Finance and Banking from Mzumbe University, Tanzania in December, 2002. He is currently a Senior Partner with Globe Accountancy Services, a firm of Certified Public Accountants, Tax and Management Consultants, located in Dar es Salaam-Tanzania. For over twenty years he worked as Chief Financial Executive Officer in a leading diamond mining Company in North Tanzania, and the jointly owned Tanzania Zambia Railway Authority (TAZARA). Method believes that the modern day accountant should be proactive in appropriately repositioning his/her services, in the fast changing and borderless world of industry and commerce.
Method served as a member of the International Assembly of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants representing Tanzania for three consecutive terms of two years each up to 2005; and for two terms ending 2008 representing Eastern, Central and Southern Africa. He was founder president of the ACCA Tanzania Members Branch from 2005 to 2009. He has also served on several committees of and he is currently a member of the governing Board and vice chairman of the technical services committee of the National Board of Accountants and Auditors. He is also the chairman of the editorial and publications Committee of the Tanzania Association of Accountants.
Method has on many occasions made presentations on accounting and corporate governance issues in seminars and workshops. He, together two other colleagues, have authored a book on Liquidation Law and Practice in Tanzania. He is a member and vice chairman of the National Consumer Advocacy Council of Tanzania. He is also a member and Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of Mkombozi Commercial Bank as well as Chairman of its Audit Committee. He is also a member of the Board of Director and chairman of the Audit Committee of AAR Insurance (T) Ltd.
Besides his professional preoccupations, Method actively participates in community service activities through his membership to Rotary International. He previously served as Treasurer, Secretary and President of the Rotary Club of Dar es Salaam – Mzizima. He is currently the Rotary District 9200 Fund coordinator for Tanzania, the District chair for community service, and director of Rotary Foundation for the Rotary Club of Dar es Salaam, Mzizima.
Volunteers
Our talented team of past volunteers have worked with us on a variety of tasks, which range from anywhere between assisting with writing the financial manual, to fundraising and designing newsletters.