Marretje is born and raised in the Netherlands. Passionate about nature, she decided to study Biology and obtained her bachelor’s degree at the University of Utrecht.
Being fascinated with the impact of our food system on our natural resources, she continued with a master’s degree in Plant Science (Specialisation Organic Agriculture & Natural Resource Management) at Wageningen University and Research. During this program, she spend half a year in Ghana to study the benefits of compost for smallholder farmers. Here, she fell in love with the continent of Africa and developed her interest to work on the subject of Food Security.
Marretje felt she wanted to obtain a more complete picture of the food system, and therefore decided she wanted to gain more knowledge on fisheries and aquaculture. Therefore, she continued with the master program Aquaculture and Marine Resource Management. at Wageningen University and Research. For her thesis, she studied sponge aquaculture in Turkey.
After graduation, Marretje returned to Africa to work for REEFolution, a coral restoration project based in Kenia. She is very excited to put everything she learned here into practice at the Ropes of Hope. We are convinced she has the expertise to help us not only grow coral but also approach the project with a hollistic view.
As a project coordinator Marretje helps with setting up the new coral propagation project and the internship program. Furthermore, Marretje is active with implementing project research proposals, the training of interns and staff, and assists with fund-raising and grant proposal writing.