ABOUT US
Our Founder
Thomas Polimé
In 2012 Thomas Polimé, an anthropologist specialized in the Ndyuka culture and also descended of this community, founded Wooko Makandie. He founded the foundation to promote and support initiatives of young people without jobs and encourage integration and personal growth of Maroons and other young people in the Netherlands and abroad. The foundation activities where based on traditional Surinamese Maroon hand skills and contemporary hand skills in the field of education, training, culture and work and everything that is related or conducive to this.
Through the years the activities of the foundation grew into what it is today.
The Board
Since 2020, Thomas Polimé made way for a new board and handed total governance over tot the new enthusiastic board in 2022:
Megaidi Pinas-Pieroelie
She is a legal advisor at the Judicial Information Service of the Ministry of Justice and Security. She has social engagement as main pillar in all the work she does. Being a board member of Wooko Makandie hits home for her as she was raised in an Ndjuka household where the customs where and still are of great importance. As a board member she hopes to strengthen her knowledge of what the heritage entails en to pay it forward.
Melissa Pesna
She grew up in a very mulitcultural environment traveling between Grand Santi, her family’s kampu in French Guiana, and Maseille. Her parents are French and Ndjuka. She has a master degree in translation and is currently developing her own business. She joined Wooko Makandie to learn more about her history and culture and to help share it.