Frank Weijand

Founder & Director

Frank first set sail to South America in 2002. He travelled the continent extensively, but his life changing experience came while volunteering at wildlife rescue centres himself, adding a lot of hands-on experience (and a couple of scratches) to his resume. A few years later, he decided to give shape to Merazonia – a centre that focuses on the actual rehabilitation of wildlife in their natural habitat. He spent many years ploughing through the mud alongside staff and volunteers, building facilities and feeding animals.

Nowadays, Frank focuses more on making sure the expert team of Merazonia has the means and tools to flourish in their work. Frank is also a journalist and contributed in 2023 to the (Dutch) book "The feature of the Amazon".

Jungle experience

“Seeing an animal released is what we do all this for. But I also enjoy seeing volunteers from all over the world and all walks of life, work alongside each other. It makes me feel proud of creating this place and brings that intangible touch of magic to the centre.”

Want to know more? Read this interview with him.

Kaya de Reede

Wildlife and Operations Manager

Kaya makes sure everything runs smoothly in the reserve. She joined us for the first time in 2017, staying for 9 months, and proving to be quite a professional accident magnet (even breaking her thumb playing a game of slapsies). That did not stop her from gaining her degree in Wildlife Management.

Her knowledge of, and passion for, the animals is unrivaled.

Beside her work for Merazonia, Kaya started her own website tobewild.org. This is a platform for wildlife rehabilitation and release protocols. She collects the knowledge from responsible rescue centres worldwide, with the aim to give other centres the tools to give animals the best start possible on a life back into the wild. Many of Merazonia's releases can be found here too.

Kaya works like a warrior but can fall over her own feet and is petrified of the dark and horror movies.

Randy Yagual
Onsite veterinarian

Randy's passion for wildlife is unmistakable as he gained experience in wildlife medicine whenever and wherever he could. Since 2023 he spends most of his time as the resident veterinarian of Merazonia.

Merazonia is one of the few wildlife centres in Latin America with an onsite vet.

Randy is originally from Machala, the banana capital of the world, in the southwest of Ecuador and if you are volunteering at Merazonia, you might be lucky enough to see him in the communal kitchen, cooking a delicious traditional Ecuadorian meal such as bolones or patacones.

Louisa Baillie

Head Veterinarian

Louisa graduated from Cambridge University and worked as a vet in England for several years, before coming to Merazonia as a volunteer, in early 2009. After some travels through the continent, Louisa became our resident vet.

While working at Merazonia, Louisa got a Masters in Conservation Medicine and assisted other centres in the area with medical work. She is a member of the Ecuadorian Wildlife Veterinarian Association. She also completed a few Wilderness Advanced First Aid (WAFA) courses and she is unrivalled when it comes to digging kick-ass ditches.

She has taken a step back from the day-to-day operations but still supervises the medical team. Frank and Louisa met in Merazonia and have a jungle born son (not the one in the picture), named Luca.

Listen to her talk about her work in this radio-interview   (starting at 9.30 minutes)

Ana Dávila

Education, development and communications

Born in Ecuador's capital Quito, Ana always had a wonder and respect for animals. She studied Biology, dedicated some time to Environmental education, and then went on to study a Masters in Applied Animal Behaviour and Animal Welfare. Her passion and curiosity for other species and her will to leave a better print on our planet brought her to Merazonia in 2020. She visited us a couple of times until becoming part of our team in 2021.

Currently, 'Ana Banana' collaborates mainly from Quito. She is in charge of most of our external communication, so if you e-mail us, you probably have spoken with her. She is also in charge of the development of educational projects and a board member of the Ecuadorian Merazonia foundation. She is also quite active in the animal & environmental protection movements within Ecuador and the lead singer of rock band Collider's Paradox. Curious? Check them out here!

Guido Viteri

Construction Manager and Agroecological Development

Guido was born and raised near Merazonia’s home ground, the village of Mera and has been part of Merazonia since the first spade went into the ground. Guido initially was in charge of the tough task of jungle construction. Though he still helps us with construction, we supported Guido to train as an Agriculture and Ecology specialist. He completed his studies in 2011 and now mostly manages our compost, plantation and reforestation projects. He is always up for a laugh provided you speak Spanish (or at least try to). Guido has three children: Jefferson, Angelo and Wendy, who is about to make him a granddad!

Jennifer Greene

Founder

Jennifer is co-founder of Merazonia and was hands-on involved with the initial five rough years of construction and paperwork. She now spends most of her time back in the United States, working as a psychologist and raising her family (2 boys, 2 girls, a dog and many foster kittens). She is director of Merazonia’s US based 501(c)(3)non-profit organization Save Ecuador’s Animals that helps to fund the centre's projects. She tries to visit the refuge whenever she can.

Alex Girard

Development and fundraising

Alex joined us as a volunteer in 2013 and came back later that year as a coordinator. Being at Merazonia became a life changer for him and Alex. He picked up a study in wildlife rehabilitation while also using his background in fundraising to further develop Merazonia’s rehabilitation projects as well as several projects in Africa. Alex currently resides in the US and tries to regularly visit Merazonia to get his hands dirty.

Sanne van der Meer

Fundraising

Sanne joined us in 2019 for two months of volunteering. After leaving Merazonia, things just didn't feel right so she returned for five months in 2021 and again in 2023. Nowadays, Sanne has an MSc in Conservation and Restoration Ecology. She remains involved with Merazonia from her base in The Netherlands, as a boardmember of the Dutch foundation and through various conservation and fundraising projects.

Brian Donnelan and Jason Howard

Assistants to the manager

Both Brian and Jason have a long history with Merazonia, starting with long periods of volunteering. Merazonia kept drawing them back. Their passion for the animals and the centre itself is so obvious that it is hard to imagine them anywhere else but here, in the jungle.

They both assist Kaya in animal management and volunteer coordination - making sure the centre runs smooth. Brian focuses more on the animals, Jason on general maintenance. Learn a thing or two about Gaelic football, and you are in with Irish Brian! And as long as you don't mention Tottenham Hotspurs chronical underperformance in the premier league, you will get along just fine with Cockney Jason too. His pizzas only rank number 2 on best pizzas in Ecuador, after Orishas pizzas in Ayampe.