Marina Melis

Marina is the founder and driving force of Donkey Sanctuary Bonaire. Seven days a week she cares for more than 400 donkey ‘children’ heart and soul, she is on stand-by to rescue live wild donkeys in distress and manages everything in the sanctuary.

Ed Koopman

Ed, who is Marina’s husband, made almost all the buildings in the sanctuary himself: shop, stables, water well, windmill, watch-tower and so on. He works daily on maintenance and technical jobs in the park.

Genaro Anthony

Genaro assists in all heavy and technical jobs at Donkey Sanctuary Bonaire. But above all he is a specialist in catching live wild donkeys. Thanks to his skills, many donkeys were brought in to spend the rest of their lives lovingly cared for.

Marion Jeursen

Before Marion left the Netherlands to move to Bonaire in 2007, she worked as a manager in a perfumery. Living on Bonaire, one day she found a badly injured donkey foal and called the sanctuary. Sadly this foal did not survive, but Marion was touched by our good work and started to work with us as a volunteer. She helps take care of the donkeys and welcomes visitors.

Marijke Brinkman

Marijke worked as a nurse and volunteered in Holland at a bird shelter.  Now she lives on Bonaire because of her husband’s job, she wants to contribute here as well. At first she knew nothing about donkeys and even was a little scared of them. Now the fear is gone and she loves the animals enormously!

Mark Wachtmeester

My name is Mark. Why I started to work at the donkeys? First I visited the donkey park some times and I liked it very much. So I asked Marion and Marina: “Can I come to work here?”. And that was okay. I was very happy about it and I still like it very much. (Mark is nine years old, helps us every Wednesday afternoon and is a very good and strong volunteer).

Peter Scholte

Peter exchanged his life in Holland and his job at the ‘tax information telephone’ during six months for Bonaire due to his girlfriend’s job. When he heard we could use an extra pair of hands in the sanctuary, he spontaneously offered to help us half time.