Who we are

Senegalese professionals, grounded in lived experience.

Founder & President

Bineta Gueye Thiam

Principal Investigator, Empower Minds Initiative · BSc Psychology, MSc Forensic Mental Health

Bineta founded WASSOR from a conviction that the psychological distress of Senegalese women — particularly divorced women, widows, and those carrying caring responsibilities — was both real and structurally invisible within existing mental health systems.

As Principal Investigator on the Grand Challenges Canada Empower Minds grant, she leads WASSOR's digital mental health programme across Dakar, Saint-Louis, and Kolda; directs the Womanity programme in Casamance and Touba; and represents WASSOR in its partnerships with the Ministère de l'Éducation Nationale, the Ministère de la Famille, and international partners. Her approach is grounded in decolonial womanist ethics and Participatory Research — and in the understanding that the most durable interventions are built by communities, not for them.

Team

Marième Pouye

Administration & Archives

A founding member of WASSOR with a background as an archivist across local institutions and companies. She oversees WASSOR's administrative functions, ensuring the organisational rigour and transparency that underpins its reporting to funders and communities alike.

Mouhamed Sama

Student Engagement

Manages WASSOR's Vie Étudiante cell — a student-led group promoting mental health awareness and the holistic wellbeing of women within university communities, connecting WASSOR's mission to the realities faced by young people in Senegal.

Academic partners

WASSOR's intermediary training programme is co-developed and delivered in partnership with two senior academics from the University of East London.

Professor Rachel Tribe

Professor of Applied Psychology, UEL

Chartered Counselling and Organisational Psychologist, Fellow of the British Psychological Society, with over 30 years of experience in clinical services, research, and international training. Chair of the international mental health charity CAREIF and recipient of the BPS Distinguished Contribution to Practice Award (2025).

Dr Claire Marshall

Programme Leader, Counselling Psychology, UEL

Chartered Counselling Psychologist whose research focuses on displaced populations and refugees in Africa, Europe, and the UK. Over a decade of experience implementing psychosocial interventions in clinical, academic, and civic settings.