What they say

Blake Lee-Harwood, Communications & Strategy Director at Sustainable Fisheries Partnership: “Yvonne is an incredibly focused and driven professional who delivers amazing results (often in the face of some awesome obstacles). I would recommend Yvonne to anyone as an individual with astonishing tenacity and grit and also a great colleague to work with”.

Ian Christie, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK:  Fellow, Centre for Environmental Strategy/Coordinator, Sustainable Lifestyles Research Group
”Yvonne has a remarkable record of accomplishment in development projects in Madagascar, drawing on her gifts for communication, programme management, fundraising and community organisation. I have been delighted to work with Yvonne over many years, most recently bringing her in to teach Master’s students of all ages and backgrounds on the University of Surrey’s courses on Sustainable Development. Yvonne’s warm, engaging and clear approach to communication makes for inspiring and illuminating classes for the students, who have responded with huge enthusiasm to her talks. I can unreservedly recommend Yvonne as a project manager, professional communications advisor and teacher”.

Tony Long, Director of European Policy WWF, Trustee Andrew Lees Trust : “In my Trustee position, I have known Yvonne and her work as Director of Andrew Lees Trust for more than eight years. She is an extremely skilled project manager, strategic planner and inspirational NGO director and leader. She led a highly decentralised team in Madagascar of well over 50 persons to deliver outstanding field programme results. Throughout this period, she has consistently  met extremely demanding donor and audit requirements, often for grants in excess of a million euros from multiple donors.”

Darek Urbaniak, Extractive Industry Campaign Coordinator, Friends of the Earth Europe “I can highly recommend Yvonne as a reliable and highly motivated professional who, with many years front line experience, brings a great deal of insight and a thorough knowledge of development and civil society issues to her work.”

Misbah Sheikh, Chief, Partnerships Division, UNRWA International Affairs, Jordan  “It is not often that one comes across a development communications professional who thoroughly knows how to promote both advocacy and social change initiatives, can think out of the box, is culturally sensitive, reliable, systematic and will give you everything from A to Z without even being asked. Yvonne was an absolute joy to work with and I am extremely proud that through her hard work and dedication we were able to reach close to half a million people in southern Madagascar with first time radio programmes on vaccination and hygiene. The ‘Project Radio’ model which she developed was subsequently adopted and scaled up for UNICEF ‘s national sanitation programme.”

Richard Marsh, General Manager, Caepost “What’s so special about Yvonne’s work is her ability to get straight to the heart of the subject matter. The way she engaged with the people she filmed for our video enabled them to present a lucid and compelling story. She then integrated their narrative with film work that she directed with a fresh and exciting perspective. Yvonne really knows what it takes to achieve great communication. ”

Birgitte Jallov, Director, Coach and Adviser, EMPOWERHOUSE  “I worked with Yvonne Orengo on a comunications research and documentation project in 2007. We among others worked together with the ALT team in Madagascar, and it was impressive to sense the special, respectful relation between Yvonne and her Malagasy colleagues, who obvisously  appreciated her leadership and approach. Yvonne is a powerful, systematic professional, who knows what she is doing and executes her work in a ‘contextual’ way, involving all relevant partners including national authorities, multi-and bilaterals and locally based NGOs in her work. Yvonne’s work is the kind that builds empowerment and helps make change happen. I can  highly recommend collaboration with Yvonne, and look forward to having an opportunity to work with her again myself!”