Current Team

Sarah Oakes

Founding Trustee Sarah has been working with vulnerable children in Latin America since 2003. After working as a volunteer coordinator at a home for deaf children in Cusco, the harsh reality of life for abandoned and working children in Latin America struck her deeply and Sarah continued to work directly with vulnerable children in the Peruvian Andes region for three years returning to the UK to found LAFF, which she now tirelessly directs in her free time on a voluntary basis.

To combine with her in-depth knowledge of local culture, the realities of our beneficiaries and fluent Spanish, Sarah has ten years experience in international development, fundraising, volunteer management and capacity-building through her work with charities as varied as Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO), The Place2Be, and the TONI&GUY Charitable Foundation in the UK and overseas. Sarah is now a fully qualified teacher in the UK.

Tatiana Ticona

Tatiana has been working in development and humanitarian aid projects for over 5 years. Being Peruvian, she has a comprehensive knowledge of the adversities faced by vulnerable children and youth in the country,  which motivated her to work with LAFF. Moreover, she is particularly interested in development projects in the education and healthcare sectors. Tatiana has a BSc. in International Trade and Development (GRS) from the University of British Columbia and took part in the Erasmus Mundus double-masters degree in Public Policy, obtaining both an MA in Development Studies and an MA in International Relations.

Her prior work experiences took place in numerous countries, including Canada, Spain and lately, the Central African Republic. She has worked doing research on migrant’s issues, in a project assisting temporary young migrants, and providing operational support to several humanitarian aid projects in Africa.

Tatiana aims to put all her personal and professional skills to optimal use during her time with LAFF, thus contributing to the development of her country in general, and to the welfare of vulnerable children and youth in Peru in particular.

Maria Paula Jaramillo

Maria Paula, LAFF’s former International Partnerships Manager who is now working as a consultant for LAFF, has a MA in development studies from the University of Granada, Spain and a BA in political science from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana of Colombia. She has lived and worked in Colombia, Spain, Uganda and El Salvador and since the end of June, 2012 she worked as LAFF´s International Partnerships Manager. Before being a consultant for LAFF, Maria was working as the OVC Program Manager for a USAID funded project in Uganda. Maria has over 5 years of technical and management international development experience, researching and working in conflict and post conflict scenarios with vulnerable populations (including at risk youth, street children, child soldiers, child mothers, IDPs and other victims of armed conflicts, small producer organizations, women groups, demobilized population of illegal armed groups and people living with HIV/AIDS, amongst others). Using household, community and value chain approaches she has designed and implemented interventions that integrate community development, livelihoods, agricultural and economic development, food security, sustainability, gender, and conflict resolution.

Arianna Valentini

Arianna grew up in South America, moving between Peru and Venezuela which sparked her interest for International Development. This took her to complete a BA in Political Science at LUISS Guido Carli University in Rome, where she is originally from, and an MSc in Development Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.  She took over the position of Vocational Training and Career Guidance in March 2013 and since she has a good grasp of local customs and reality we are confident she will bring a dynamic approach to the table.

Meredith Saggers

Meredith took over as Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor in May 2013 to develop and implement an M&E system so LAFF can better track and report their activities and impacts. She brings over 5 years of experience in monitoring and evaluation in the development field, most notably in providing guidance and capacity-building to small organizations in Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania to develop their own internal monitoring and evaluation systems. Meredith holds a master’s degree in economics from the University of Virginia and bachelor’s degrees in economics and biochemistry from Bucknell University.

Julie Cabanes

Julie has just graduated from a bilingual [English/Spanish] degree in international business and next, she plans to carry further studies that allow her to explore the different cultures and economies of Latin American countries. During the past couple of years, she has collaborated with different charities in Toulouse, participating in educational and awareness raising activities regarding international and French social issues. Additionally, last year she volunteered in Azul Wasi, one of LAFF partners in the Cuzco area, where she met a group of thriving, open minded and loving kids. This experience definitely confirmed her desire to continue this line of work and to she has thus decided to build a career in international development. Two months after her volunteer experience in Cuzco she applied for the International Partnerships Manager Assistant position in LAFF. She already has relevant field experience, working directly with the beneficiaries of Azul Wasi, and we are sure she will enjoy gaining some more. She is motivated, dynamic and eager to learn!

 

Trustees

Jenna Steggles

Joining as a Trustee in 2007, Jenna has been involved in LAFF since the very beginning. A marketeer by profession, her 10 years experience managing marketing communications for global travel brands has channeled her interest in sustainable tourism and international development.

In a recent visit to Peru, she witnessed first hand the positive impact of LAFF’s work and is committed to extending the charity’s reach to regions throughout Latin America with its Education and Sustainability projects.

Alice Foster-Key

 Alice, also a LAFF Trustee since it’s founding, comes with a background of project management and business thinking from 9 years working for a FTSE 100 company.  Through the years, Alice has been involved in supporting LAFF with event fundraising, grant fundraising and was a key member of the LAFF Channel Swim team in 2009, rallying the whole family to be involved and raise over £12,000 in total for LAFF.  Alice has also visited Peru and seen first-hand the impact of LAFF’s projects at our partner organisations and is committed to seeing LAFF help its partners on the ground become more independent and self-sustaining.

 

Pete Howson

Pete has been LAFF’s in-house design volunteer for the last two years, working his magic on all our communication materials from videos to newsletters.

Pete’s long-standing interest in development work has taken him across countries as diverse as Mozambique and Indonesia through his job as an environmental consultant, and he is looking forward to make it to Latin America in future to see LAFF’s projects in action.

 

 

Former Staff and Volunteers

Jenni Tahvanainen

Jenni joined LAFF with the first international volunteer cohort in 2012, to become LAFF’s first Social Enterprise Programme Coordinator. Jenni’s experience in working with homeless and vulnerable people in London and Finland will bring fresh ideas to LAFF and partner organisations’ work. Whilst working in London, a lot of Jenni’s clients were from Latin America and this together with her long lasting interest towards international development and Latin America made her join LAFF. Jenni’s work experience, her postgraduate studies in Public Policy and Management together with her fluent Spanish enabled her to help LAFF and partner organisations in developing our social enterprise projects, by helping one of our partners build a business proposal for a new social enterprise.

Jess Bray

Jess joined the LAFF team in July 2012 as Communications and Information Officer. A first-year University student studying English and Spanish, Jess has a lot of experience working with children, including volunteering at a disabled school and also assisting in sport and music training for young people. She also has a keen interest in journalism and is excited to assist LAFF in Communications. Staying in Cusco for 3 months, Jess gained first-hand experience in International Development and assisted LAFF through a range of communication projects.

Sarah Jessett

Sarah joined the LAFF volunteer team in September 2012 as the Vocational Training and Career Guidance Programme Coordinator.  Sarah has over two years experience working in the international development sector, having previously worked for an international health charity and a housing association.  Sarah came with experience of project and financial management and strengthening organisational systems, as well designing Business English training programmes. Sarah’s interest in Latin America came from studying Spanish at university, and she is passionate about helping to improve the situation of marginalised and vulnerable children in Peru.

Maria Cunningham

Maria became a LAFF volunteer in September 2012, taking over from Jess as Communications and Information Officer. Having completed 2 years of her Modern Languages degree, she spent 6 months in Cusco as part of her Year Abroad. Maria first came to South America in 2009 on a World Challenge expedition to Brazil, which sparked her interest in working with vulnerable and marginalised individuals. She has previously worked with children in the UK as a mentor and tutor, but in her first role in International Development, Maria gained valuable experience in Communications, managing our communications and supported our partner organisations.

Danielle Hoegy

Danielle joined the LAFF team in February 2013 as the first Monitoring & Evaluation Advisor. She completed her undergraduate degree in international development and cultural anthropology in 2008 and her Master’s in public policy and administration in 2010. She has two years evaluation experience working for a consulting firm in Ottawa, Canada. She has previously volunteered overseas in Haiti and Kenya, working on children’s issues including access to education. Danielle was able to devise LAFF’s first M&E overview and strategy for the future, whilst living in Cusco, practicing Spanish, eating amazing food, and working with LAFF and its partners.

Holly Read

Holly has been involved with LAFF since its inception but became an honorary Trustee in summer 2011 for her dedicated support to all things admin. Holly was working in the legal sector in the city but recently qualified as a secondary science teacher through the charity Teach First which aims to address educational disadvantage.

Holly has also been lucky enough to travel to Peru and see the projects in action, and her legal and education background means she brings another important outlook to the team.

Chris James

Chris joined the team following LAFF’s fourth successful bid to Vodafone Foundation World of Difference Programme in 2012. The funding provided the opportunity for Chris to develop a system to recruit, assess and train volunteers to go out and support LAFF’s work in Peru in the summer of 2012.

Chris brings with him 8 years of experience working in the development sector, mainly with Voluntary Service Overseas, both in the UK and overseas.

Marcus Revington

Marcus is LAFF’s IT consultant who worked extremely hard to put together the new LAFF website based on the fantastic design work of designedbygoodpeople‘s Lee and Ariana.

Marcus comes to us with many years experience as IT Coordinator with the International Development NGO Engineers Without Borders UK.

Hannah Barrett

Hannah first came to Peru in 2005, where she worked as Volunteer Coordinator and then Regional Manager for Madventurer, a volunteer-sending organisation implementing education and infrastructure projects. Whilst in Peru, Hannah became our first voluntary ‘man on the ground’ helping LAFF with project support and grant distribution, before returning to the UK, becoming a trustee and working tirelessly on fundraising efforts from the UK.

Involved with event planning, fundraising and even swimming the channel, Hannah sadly passed away in July 2010, losing her two year battle to cancer. Hannah remains an inspiration to LAFF’s team and will forever be an honorary Trustee in spirit due to her unrelenting dedication, energy and enthusiasm. You can donate in Hannah’s memory by clicking on this link to Hannah’s Fund.

Fran Talavera

Previous International Projects Manager Fran’s desire to work in International Development was fired by a year volunteering in Peru during her university studies. While in Peru in 2005-6 she volunteered with a police-run refuge for street children in Cuzco and was instrumental in setting up a home for former street children which went on to become one of LAFF’s partner projects. After graduating, Fran worked as Training Programme Manager for Engineers Without Borders UK, whilst taking a Certificate of Higher Education in International Development.  After becoming part of the LAFF team in January 2010, Fran won one of eight places available through the Vodafone Foundation World of Difference International Programme to work as LAFF’s International Projects Manager. Fran has now moved on to work for an education charity in Honduras.