To watch the webinar recording video, click here.

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MHPSS.net and REPSSI were pleased to held on 27th February 2019 the second webinar in their joint series on “Community-Based MHPSS in Practice: Voices from East and Southern Africa” which featured a presentation from Lucie Nzaramba on Community-Based Sociotherapy in Rwanda, with Community MHPSS Specialist Yvonne Sliep responding as a discussant.

About the webinar:

The “Community Based MHPSS in Practice: Voices from East and Southern Africa” webinar series features the experiences of front-line professionals working on community-based MHPSS in East and Southern Africa (ESA). The second webinar in this series on focusses specifically on Community-Based Sociotherapy, a community-based, evidence-based and context-driven approach that aims to create a peaceful society whereby the social fabric of communities that faced a painful past will be repaired and personal healing achieved.

The presenter will explore the processes of creation of platforms for dialogue, active communities and the steps forward in the process of transitional justice, while reflecting on how this community based psychosocial approach links the psychological well-being of individuals to building safety and trust in order to socially connect and reconcile with others. The discussant and the presenter will also reflect on how this process acknowledges and supports the community needs in terms of healing, reconciliation and social justice, while discussing how to tackle contextual and cultural challenges in working to achieve sustainable, high-quality MHPSS programmes.

About the Presenter:

Lucie Nzaramba has been the Executive Director of Community Based Sociotherapy since 2017, where she has promoted peace building and reconciliation processes by using the community based sociotherapy approach.  She has extensive experience in organizational leadership and management including support to designing, planning, and implementation of different program activities. Lucie has 5 years of experience in coordination and supervision of operational and qualitative aspects of programs, monitoring and evaluation reports and networking with different stakeholders.  She has a long successful record of leading national and regional projects. Lucie is a consultative councillor in different institutions.  Her recent activities have focussed on coordinating and managing different sociotherapy projects, working with public officials, civil society organizations and donors to enhance psychosocial healing and reconciliation.

About the Discussant:

Yvonne Sliep is a critical community specialist in MHPSS. She is affiliated to the University Kwa-Zulu Natal and has completed extensive work in building social fabric and collective healing within war-effected countries. Her interventions and research are strongly informed by the Narrative paradigm. She is currently a consultant for the Institute of Justice and Reconciliation which is leading a project aimed at narrowing the gap between mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) and peacebuilding (PB).

About the Moderator:

Marcio Gagliato is a psychologist, with extensive field experience responding to humanitarian emergencies. Since 2015, he has been a part of the MHPSS.net team, with lead responsibility for supporting ongoing humanitarian emergencies. In 2008 he was awarded a Human Rights fellowship from Columbia University (New York), and over the past decade he has worked with several organizations, including the ICRC (Gaza, Iran), IOM (Libya), the Center for the Victims of Torture (Zimbabwe), Save the Children (Brazil) and CARE (HQ and East Central Africa Region). He has completed various consultancies with IMC, Chemonics, UNICEF, WHO, CARE International, SOS Children’s Villages focusing on a wide range of MHPSS management programmatic areas, especially in emergencies and protracted crises field level.

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