Meet the team
Dinesh Bandela
Project Manager (India)
Jerome Combes
Head of Programmes & Impact
Trudi Field
Administrator
Ingrid Henrys
Project Coordinator (The Gambia)
Luther Hinga
Project Officer
Zoë Lenkiewicz
Senior Technical Advisor
Head of Communications
Tram Nguyen
Project Manager (Vietnam)
Thabo Selai
Project Manager (South Africa)
Ceris Turner-Bailes
Chief Executive Officer
Michelle Wilson
Network Director
Dinesh Raj Bandela – Project Manager (India)
Dinesh is a waste manager and brings 10 years of sustainable waste management experience from India. He believes in research-based environmental activism, Dinesh contributed towards defining single use plastic in India and developing an extended producer responsibility (EPR) strategic framework for sustainable plastic waste management.
Prior to joining WasteAid in October 2020, Dinesh was with Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a top-rated environmental think tank in the Asian region. Driven by research, policy interventions and advocacy, his publication on plastic waste management is a guiding document to understand the status of plastic waste handling in different states of India. Dissemination of research through capacity building with public, private and non-profit waste management entities is one of his areas of interest.
Starting his career with public awareness activities for sustainable waste management, Dinesh comes with diversified experience of centralised waste management for urban local bodies, waste-to-energy operations and the co-creation of social and business value through community-based composting units.
His work for integrating women ragpickers into mainstream waste collection in the Delhi region has received acknowledgment from the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India.
Dinesh has a post graduate diploma in environment and sustainable development, an MBA specialising in rural marketing, and an engineering background in computer programming.
Ingrid Henrys – Project Coordinator (The Gambia)
Ingrid joined WasteAid as Project Coordinator in The Gambia in 2021.
Throughout her career, Ingrid has worked mostly in Haiti, in water and sanitation, agriculture, and environment sectors for the government and national and international NGOs. She was the Head of Sanitation in Haiti for two years before coordinating projects and programs for NGOs. In the environment sector, she was part of the management teams of two national natural parks which are biodiversity hotspots.
Her work has always had a strong focus on people’s dignity and well-being and environment protection and preservation. She has worked on the ground in challenging contexts such as post-disaster (earthquake, hurricane) and socio-political unrest.
Ingrid wanted to join WasteAid because her personal and professional values align with those of the organisation. WasteAid’s actions in The Gambia, in transforming organic waste into products for improving agriculture yield and the soils, will empower women through the work with women gardeners while enhancing better waste management.
Ingrid holds two master’s degrees, in International Agricultural Development and Tropical Biodiversity and its Conservation.
Thabo Selai – Project Manager (South Africa)
Thabo Selai has over 20 years’ experience in the development sector. He has worked on a wide range of projects funded by EU, USAID, GIZ as well as other international donor agencies, many of which have focused on local and regional development, including SME development. He has excellent experience in youth and women economic empowerment and has worked with a broad range of partners and stakeholders in tourism, agriculture, ICT, manufacturing and the green economy at local, regional and national government levels.
Before joining WasteAid Thabo worked for FHI360 where he led a USAID-funded DREAMS Economic Strengthening programme for adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in Gauteng, South Africa.
His career achievements include co-authoring South Africa’s draft National Incubation and BDS Policy (2019), provision of technical assistance through the EU-SA SMME Project to South Africa’s national small business development agency (Seda) and the National Department of Small Business Development, contributing to the development and piloting of the Seda District Ecosystem Coordination Model, co-authoring an Industrial Extension Manual for South Africa’s small business counsellors as well as managing the National Review of SMME Classifications and Definitions Research Project on behalf of the Department of Trade and Industry.
Thabo holds a National Diploma in Electrical Engineering, Diploma in Marketing Management and several certificates in entrepreneurship and international development.
Trudi Field – Office Manager
Trudi Field has been the part time office manager at WasteAid since 2018. As well as general administrative duties, Trudi assists the Head of Finance and Compliance, and also helps with a variety of other tasks such as the aiding the busy recruitment processes. She is also responsible for managing the online shop.
Trudi enjoys giving talks and workshops on WasteAid’s work and ethos to schools and businesses, as well as representing the charity at events.
Luther Hinga – Project Officer
Luther Hinga joined the WasteAid team in February 2020, bringing waste management expertise from the UK and business experience from Nairobi, Kenya. Luther is an Associate Member at the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management and is passionate about finding a long-term solution to the global waste infrastructure and collection system crisis.
Luther holds a BEng (Hons) in Chemical Engineering from Aston University, including sustainable waste and renewable technologies, which sparked Luther’s interest in pursuing an impactful career in the global waste sector.
Luther’s main focus at WasteAid is to project manage the UKAid Match plastics recycling training programme in Douala, Cameroon, as well as providing support across other WasteAid initiatives.
Zoë Lenkiewicz – Senior Technical Advisor & Head of Communications
Growing WasteAid from the ground up, Zoë combines technical and creative skills with strategic waste management expertise.
A professional waste manager since 2002, Zoë has led municipal waste and recycling programmes, research studies, campaigns and consultations, workshops and training courses for government, practitioners, and community groups in the UK and in lower-income countries. Prior to her work developing WasteAid, Zoë was a successful independent consultant, supporting smart-material start-ups, government agencies and major waste management companies.
At WasteAid, Zoë is a driving force in the movement to attract international attention to the power of waste management for global development. Her cross-sector experience enables diverse stakeholders to make progress towards common goals. Zoë has project managed the UK Aid funded plastics recycling programme in The Gambia, a community waste management initiative in Indonesia, and multi-stakeholder waste management training in Ghana and Tanzania. Zoë was the chief author of the award-winning WasteAid toolkit Making Waste Work, and works with communities worldwide to deliver genuinely sustainable waste management.
Zoë has a BSc in Environmental Biology (focused on ecotoxicology) and an MSc in Environment and Development (focused on waste management and environmental challenges in lower-income countries). She is a CSC Commonwealth Leader alumni, has been recognised as a Woman of Influence by the Planner and among the 100 Women Creating a Better Africa, and is an approved trainer on the International Solid Waste Association’s Clean Oceans through Clean Communities framework programme.
Jerome Combes – Head of Programmes & Impact
Jerome Combes has worked for the last 20 years in the development sector including 15 years in field operations.
He started his career in 2000, as administrator for Action Against Hunger in Sierra Leone, going on to be Country Representative in different locations (Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Sudan, Togo, Burundi) and for different charities (Action Against Hunger, Save the Children France and Terre des Hommes – the main Swiss charity working in child protection and Mother & Child Health).
As Country Representative, Jerome focussed on project management and monitoring & evaluation. He had the opportunity to develop a number of partnerships with government departments and local organisations and to ensure efficient grant management.
With 15 years of work in child protection, he’s committed to the promotion of the rights of the most vulnerable and worked hard to put in place safeguarding systems to ensure safety for the best interest of beneficiaries.
During this time, child participation was at the heart of his interventions. He spent a lot of time developing beneficiary and community engagement empowering people to find solutions to their problems.
In 2015, he returned to Europe and continued to work for Terre des Hommes as Programme Manager then became Change Manager to support the implementation of a new strategy.
Jerome has a Master’s Degree in Business and a Degree in Health Education and Social Empowerment. He is also a life coach and a leadership training facilitator.
Tram Nguyen – Project Manager (Vietnam)
Tram Nguyen from Vietnam is an Environment Manager with a background in sanitary engineering and environmental management. Her study and career pathway has focused on waste water and solid waste management, in different research institutions and the private sector.
Before joining WasteAid in November 2020, her latest positions were at various resorts on remote islands in Vietnam as Environment Manager, where she spent most of the time dealing with solid waste management because of the lack of waste management facilities there. She has a keen interest in inspiring people to act locally on environmental problems and to lead by example, which plays an important role in raising awareness. Tram is also a fan of communicating sustainability through facts and figures, and has organised successful workshops to show practical examples on how people can do more to “lengthen the time a certain object is used” in a fun and quirky way.
Tram has a BSc in Biotechnology and an MSc in Environmental Management. She believes the transition to WasteAid is a further step for her to be more creative in addressing environmental problems which in turn could be of greater assistance to people who don’t have access to this basic right of hygiene and sanitation.
Ceris Turner-Bailes – Chief Executive Officer
Ceris joined award-winning charity WasteAid as Chief Executive in 2020.
Throughout her career, Ceris has worked internationally leading programmes, research, and advocacy initiatives for governments, NGOs and the private sector. She has worked extensively in community-based programming, as well as in the policy environment, and her work has always had a strong focus on partnership, quality and impact.
Ceris has worked across a number of development sectors including poverty alleviation, health and water and sanitation. She has delivered complex programmes on the ground in challenging contexts as well as strategically developing global programmes and international organisations.
Ceris was drawn to WasteAid for its potential to positively impact the lives of so many. Tackling the complex issue of waste management can help deliver many development goals – human and environmental. WasteAid’s work with vulnerable communities developing income-generating activities from recycling is both innovative and necessary. WasteAid is a charity that has the potential to do so much and Ceris is committed to further developing its work in terms of depth, scale and reach.
Before embarking upon her career in the international development sector, Ceris served as a Royal Air Force Officer and briefly as a member of HM Diplomatic Service in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Her overseas experience includes extensive work across Sub Saharan Africa, MENA region, Central Asia, the Americas and Caribbean, as well as Eastern Europe and The Balkans. Ceris holds two Bachelors degrees, including a BA (Hons) in History from King’s College, London and a postgraduate qualification in International Development.
Michelle Wilson – Network Director
Michelle Wilson joined WasteAid in August 2020 to head up a two-year Circular Economy Network Project funded by global food packaging leader Huhtamaki.
Michelle is a development specialist with over 15 years of experience living and working in developing countries (Chad, DRC, Ethiopia, Uganda, Sierra Leone and Tanzania). Prior to joining WasteAid Michelle was working as a freelance consultant developing an Impact Management Framework for a clothing Social Enterprise Arakele and a Life Skills Curriculum as part of a World Bank funded Livelihoods Project for adolescent girls in Tigray, Ethiopia. Prior to this she was Director of Programmes for Farm Africa with oversight of a £12m portfolio of development projects in Ethiopia, Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda.
Michelle has extensive experience of project cycle management from original design through to monitoring, evaluation and learning. She has worked with the leading institutional donors including EU, UK Aid, NORAD, SIDA, Irish Aid, Comic Relief as well as corporate donors such as Waitrose. She has on the ground experience in community resilience, value chain analysis, market development, climate change, environment, agriculture, education and particular expertise in gender analysis. Michelle has a Masters in Conflict Violence and Development from School of African and Oriental Studies and a Masters in French and Business Studies from St Andrews University.
