OUR ERITREAN STAFF
Iyassu is responsible for the overall leadership, strategic direction, organizational and programme management of Vita. He holds a Bachelor Degree in Business Administration, majoring in Accounting and minoring in Management from the University of Asmara, Eritrea. He also has various diplomas and certificates in Accounting and Finance.
Iyassu has more than 39 years of work experience, 15 years with International Organizations; the first two years with Family Planning, a Local NGO in Eritrea, and the proceeding 13 with Vita Eritrea. He joined Vita in 2006 as the Administration and Finance Manager, and was later promoted to his current post as Vita’s Country Director.
Before joining Vita, Iyassu worked in both tobacco and textile factories, Transhorn Transport Company, merchandise firms, and other Accounting and Auditing Firms, where he held key financial, auditing and administrative posts.
Tesfai has worked with Vita for eight years. He joined Vita after working as an audit training manager and the counterpart of an audit expert in the National Audit Office of Eritrea. Before that he had worked in different capacities with National Audit Office of Ethiopia, Oil Company, NGO and as an authorized accountant.
Tesfai holds a master’s degree in Accounting from the University of Southern New Hampshire, USA. Beyond finance and administration work, he has been involved in monitoring and undertaking follow ups of projects carried out by Vita.
Fetsumberhan’s background is in the area of planning, socio-economic development, monitoring and evaluation. He has more than 25 years of experience having worked in various areas in the Ministry of Agriculture as a senior expert, planning and statistics professional, programme coordinator, and as a Monitoring & Evaluation Officer in Central Highlands Irrigated Horticulture Development Project. Moreover, he worked as a programme officer with Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) for the Ministry of Land, Water & Environment. Prior to joining Vita, he spent 7 years working as a private consultant on socio-economic studies and planning development resources. Fetsumberhan holds a master’s degree in Management of Agricultural Knowledge Systems from Wageningen University, The Netherlands.
Fetsumberhan joined Vita as a part-time Programme Quality Manager in 2016.
Afwerki graduated from Asmara University with a degree in Management in 1986. Prior to Independence, he was assigned as a programme officer in the planning and statistics division where he was mainly responsible for the preparation of the Minister of Agriculture’s plans and budgets for the province of Eritrea during the Ethiopian Regime. After Independence, Afwerki was assigned as a programme officer to coordinate NGOs, bilateral and multilateral financed projects within the Ministry of Agriculture in Eritrea until 1998.
He has also worked as a planning and budget officer responsible for the preparation of annual plans and budgets of the Ministry. In September 2002, he left the Ministry and joined NCA (Norwegian Church Aid) where he coordinated integrated projects in Zoba Seimenawi Keih Bahri, Debub and Anseba until April 2012. Moreover, he also worked as a Finance and Administration Manager in Investment and Development Bank. Currently, he is a project manager for Vita’s agricultural projects.
Worku studied social work in Ethiopia and then joined the Eritrea Liberation Struggle, including undertaking research related to gender and women’s roles. Work was an executive member of the National Union of Eritrean Women for five years and later studied at the Institute of Social Studies in the Netherlands for a Masters in Development Studies, specializing in Gender and Women’s rights.