The Team of WTS

The Director of WTS has been committed to a sustainable development and the protection of our natural resources for many years, within international NGOs as well as directly on the ground. “Animal Welfare asks us urgent ethical questions. How can we develop a better understanding for our fellow beings and how can we improve our actions? There are a lot of good examples that we can learn from.”

The passion for animals is a recurring theme in Dr. Phillips’ life: Started with a study of veterinary medicine, her first job as a veterinarian brought her to a center for injured and/ or confiscated wildlife. She continued as a veterinary conduit in free castration clinics, vaccinations and veterinary treatments for domestic animals and livestock in Africa and a little later for stray cats and dogs in Thailand. Today she heads our program VETS UNITED.

Since her studies of veterinary medicine, Carolin Breitenbach is fascinated by the connections between human, animal and environmental health. Her experiences as a veterinary practitioner in South America and Germany made her realize that a sustainable improvement of animal welfare can only be achieved by involving local communities. At WTG she supported the implementation of this approach, by coordinating stray animal projects. After joining the WTS, she now supports our program VETS UNITED which promotes education and training for veterinary professionals e.g. in Africa.

Dr Kebba Daffeh is an experienced veterinarian who worked for many years at the Department of Livestock Services in The Gambia. He grew up in a family home with sheep, chicken, dogs and a cat and had therefore been an animal lover since early childhood. Since 2016 he works as the VETS UNITED Project Manager for The Gambia and in 2020 he additionally became the VETS UNITED Representative for West Africa. He particularly enjoys working with students in and outside the classroom providing care for animals and creating awareness in communities.

Calvin Solomon Onyango graduated in veterinary medicine in 1990 and has worked in in the animal welfare field ever since. In 2019 he became the East Africa Representative for the VETS UNITED programme, and in 2020 he took over the position as Project Manager for the VETS UNITED project in Kenya. In addition to his work for VETS UNITED he is the OIE Animal Welfare Focal Point for Kenya, member of the World Veterinary Association Technical advisory group on Animal Welfare and member of the Animal Welfare Coordination Committee of the African Union-IBAR.

Dr Paul Ssuna works as a veterinarian at the Central Diagnostic Laboratory at the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biosecurity of Makerere University in Kampala. As VETS UNITED project manager, he coordinated our education project in Uganda since 2019. Paul pursued a master’s degree in Applied animal behaviour and animal welfare at Edinburgh University, Scotland, being the first person in Uganda specialised in Animal Welfare. Since January 2021 Paul works as consultant in our programme “Animal welfare in development cooperation” and advises international NGOs on animal welfare measures in their local projects.

Veterinarian Maria Victoria Larrateguy was always amazed by nature and animals, having experienced a childhood in close contact to rural areas. Later on, the health and wellbeing of animals became her vocation and profession. She has worked in animal clinics, education and for animal and environmental health related NGOs in Germany and Argentina. Today she advocates for the improvement of human relationship towards animals and environment through integrative health approaches, regenerative agriculture and One Welfare as well as arts projects in Argentina. With her broad experience she supports the review and didactic improvement of the VETS UNITED teaching materials and roll-out of our programmes in Latin America.

David Balondemu completed a diploma in animal husbandry and founded the Ugandan Animal Welfare Organisation BAM Animal Clinics. Since 2019 he is the Project Manager of the VETS UNITED Uganda CPD Project. As VETS UNITED Project Manager he coordinates animal welfare training workshops for veterinarians and paravets in several regions in Uganda. His passion for animals started at the age of seven when his mother gave him and his siblings each a goat to take care of.

Paul Gobah was born in Liberia. He completed a degree in business management and accounting in 2004 and worked with numerous international institutions for more than 15 years. Through his career Paul gained specific experience in administrative, financial and programme work. Having a passion for animals, especially dogs, he now wants to use his skills to promote animal welfare in Liberia.

Flora Muragijemariya was born in Rwanda and grew up surrounded by animals. She studied agriculture engineering and environmental sciences. 2015 Flora started working as Managing Director at New Vision Veterinary Hospital, WTS‘ local partner. Since 2020 she additionally manages the VETS UNITED project which provides the first CPD programme for animal welfare in her country.

Dr Madeline Nyamwanza from Zimbabwe is working as a veterinary surgeon at the LSPCA Clinic in Malawi’s capital Lilongwe. She has been conducting the VETS UNITED animal welfare trainings for animal health students in Malawi since 2017 and became the project manager in 2019. Seeing newly graduates leaving the training with profound practical skills and increased awareness for animal welfare is her biggest motivation.

Gabriel Tumwine is a veterinarian with a MSc in molecular biology at Makerere University in Uganda. Besides working as a lecturer and researcher, Gabriel has been involved in practical veterinary medicine and community engagement for veterinary public health and biosecurity. He has been supporting the Vets United project from the beginning and has witnessed a substantial change in awareness and recognition of animals at his institution. In 2022 he took over the role of the project manager.