The Bahasa Basudara Core Group is a diverse group of passionate people with different backgrounds from Maluku, the Netherlands and the UK. Some started as tutors, others as students, but what brought us together was our main purpose - to help our people in Maluku and across Indonesia.
With our combined professional skills, knowledge and experience, we are able to cover many areas to keep Bahasa Basudara up and running.
Jeff Malaihollo (UK) is the founder of Bahasa Basudara and has lived in the UK for many years with his wife. He is involved with anything related to Bahasa Basudara and still manages to hold down a ‘proper’ job as a mining entrepreneur.
Nataly Sopacuaperu (UK) is the driving force behind the excellent Social Media team and is constantly engaged in creating ideas. Originally from the Netherlands, she has been living and working in London and has a background in event management. Her main aim is to make Bahasa Basudara a household name on a global platform.
Susanne Muskita (UK) was born in the Netherlands but has lived most of her life abroad. She does most of the writing (website, blogs, proofreading, press releases) for Bahasa Basudara.
Aodhan Creegan (NLD) Aodhan (Gaelic name but pronounced Aidan) is Dutch but with Moluccan upbringing. He works in the Hague and enjoys volunteering teaching English and helping with the accounts at Bahasa Basudara.
Boudewijn Waas (IND), our Bahasa Basudara Cafe Manager, grew up in Jakarta but was educated at Tourism School in Bali and Erasmus Huis in Jakarta. He speaks fluent English, Dutch, Bahasa Indonesia, Melayu Ambon and Alune languages. Boudewijn facilitated various Bahasa Basudara classes in Hutumuri area and is also an accomplished singer having recorded with various bands.
Tirsana Kailola (IND/NZ) is a passionate educator and educational program developer based in Ambon but was educated in Surabaya, New Zealand and had training in the USA. She is responsible for designing and managing teachers’ professional programs for early childhood education in Maluku. Tirsa is our social media content moderator.
Richard Lalihatu (NLD) is responsible for creating all our Bahasa Basudara videos. He has taught two classes and is proud that he can contribute to the development of his brothers and sisters in Maluku. He thinks that Bahasa Basudara provides a fun and accessible way to share knowledge with each other.
Brian Mahulette (NLD) works in the Social Media Industry. His role is to create awareness and engaging content for and about Bahasa Basudara. He is keen to share his knowledge and believes that the digital world enables us all to learn from each other - not all classrooms have four walls.
Ruben Manusama (NLD) is a photographer with a good eye for design and responsible for our Visual and Graphic designs. He became a tutor because he wanted to help the people in Maluku in a more practical and direct way.
Afilia Tuhumury (IND) currently lives in Jakarta and is our Student Coordinator. She used to be a Bahasa Basudara student and has a Mining Engineering degree. Ever since she was a young child, she had shown an interest in languages. Her main task is setting up classes for our younger students in Maluku.
Vivienne Philippus (NLD) was born in Jakarta but has lived for many years in Amsterdam. She has a background as a cultural anthropologist and worked for more than 30 years at the Social Welfare / Services for the City of Amsterdam. She was a language coach to refugees in the Netherlands for a few years. Vivienne has contributed to the language skills of the Moluccan people by tutoring English and Dutch classes for Bahasa Basudara and by collecting a large amount of books in the Netherlands and sending them to Maluku for Bahasa Basudara.
Aqul Marasabessy (IND) is educated in Ambon and Florida, USA. He looks after the Instagram and Tiktok accounts. He has attended four different Bahasa Basudara courses – our current record holder. He’s a real environmental activist and cares a lot about nature and the environment.
Ellia Wamese (GER) now lives in Germany and started as a Bahasa Basudara student in Ambon. He is multi-lingual and has always been passionate about learning and teaching languages, which is why he joined Bahasa Basudara in the first place. He is our Creative Designer.
Joaniek Vreeswijk (NLD) is our spokesperson in the Netherlands and her background in Governance, Diversity and Inclusion makes her the right person to promote Bahasa Basudara in the Dutch media.
Boya Latumahina (UK) is an Art Director and originally from the Netherlands. She is responsible for the design of our beautiful logo and certificates and together with Ruben has created our Brand Guide.
If you’re interested in joining our team of volunteers and can spare some of your time, or if you have an idea or skill that you would like to share with us – then please do contact us on: [email protected].