We Talk. We Unite. We Heal.

Who We Are

WASSOR is a grassroots team of Senegalese professionals with diverse backgrounds in psychology, community development, research, and social action. We are grounded in lived experience and rigorous in method.

Founder & President

Bineta Gueye Thiam — Founder and President

Principal Investigator, Empower Minds Initiative

Bineta Gueye Thiam holds a BSc in Psychology and an MSc in Forensic Mental Health with a specialism in personality disorders. She 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, Bineta leads WASSOR's digital mental health programme across Dakar, Saint-Louis, and Kolda. She also 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 and Archives

Administration and Archives

Marième Pouye is 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 beneficiaries alike.

Mouhamed Sama — Student Engagement

Student Engagement

Mouhamed Sama manages WASSOR's Vie Étudiant cell — a student-led group dedicated to promoting mental health awareness and the holistic wellbeing of women within university communities. His work connects WASSOR's broader mission to the specific realities and pressures faced by young people in Senegal.

Academic Partners (University of East London)

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 at UEL and Queen Mary, University of London. A Chartered Counselling and Organisational Psychologist, Fellow of the British Psychological Society, and HCPC-registered practitioner with over 30 years of experience in clinical services, research, and international training. Her expertise spans trauma, culture, mental health, and working with diverse and displaced populations. She is Chair of the international mental health charity CAREIF and recipient of the BPS Distinguished Contribution to Practice Award (2025).

Dr Claire Marshall

Chartered Counselling Psychologist and Programme Leader for the Professional Doctorate in Counselling Psychology at UEL. Dr Marshall's research is focused on displaced populations and refugees in Africa, Europe, and the UK. She has over a decade of experience implementing psychosocial interventions in clinical, academic, and civic settings, and has co-organised international conferences on forced migration and mental health alongside Professor Tribe.