Our team

She arrived in Belgium in 2011 as an unaccompanied minor, and her path crossed that of GAMS and she became one of our beneficiaries. She took part in our workshops and then trained as a community voices. After having been a member of the board for several years, she is now the new president of GAMS Belgium!

Originally from Guinea Conakry, she is a social worker at the CPAS of Schaerbeek and an activist against FGM. She was excised because she was born a woman, in a society where her main value was to honour and remain subject to the patriarchal system.

Today, she is rebuilding herself and is committed to fighting FGM and all forms of violence against women. Her fight is for every woman to feel in harmony with herself, her body, her morals and her sexuality.

Get to know Diariou better by reading her interview

Fabienne Richard is a French registered midwife who specialised in tropical medicine and public health (MSc, PhD). She has 10-year experience as clinical midwife and a field experience of 5 years in developing countries (Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Liberia, Somalia, Sri Lanka) for Doctors without borders and the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp.

She is a female genital mutilation (FGM) expert midwife and is involved in FGM research (FGM prevalence study in Belgium, Action-research on referrals for girls at risk) and writing clinical guidelines for the Ministry of Health in Belgium. She is a member of the Superior Health Council working group for reconstructive surgery post-FGM. 

She is currently the executive Director of GAMS Belgium (Groupe pour l’Abolition des Mutilations Sexuelles), midwife at the multidisciplinary health care unit for women with FGM (CeMAViE) at the Hospital St-Pierre in Brussels. She is guest researcher at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp and lecturer in several midwifery schools. 

Fabienne Richard interview for EXPERTalia AJP available here.

Lisa joined GAMS in January 2021 as a management and communications assistant. Looking for her first professional experience, Lisa wanted to work for an organisation that made sense. Lisa is particularly sensitive to the place of women in the world, so it’s only natural that she should be working for GAMS Belgium. She has a degree in public relations and event management and is a great lover of sport!

Lisa has been communications manager at GAMS Belgium since September 2023!

Aminata Sidibe, better known as Anita, is mainly of Guinean origin. She was born and raised in Belgium. She has a bachelor’s degree in political science and since September 2022, a master’s degree in population and development sciences.

She came to know GAMS while doing research for her dissertation on the subject of “Strategies for abandoning excision in Guinea”. She then enquired about the work carried out and applied for a 9-month voluntary internship at GAMS in parallel with writing her dissertation, also working with the CoP.

After her internship at GAMS, she realised that her professional and personal interest was in the fight against GBV. She learned a lot during her internship about the different issues and liked the energy of GAMS, the projects that are carried out there, the kindness of the team. As a Guinean, this is a subject that affects her close circle and her community, so it was clear to her that she had to join the team.

Mariama is of Guinean origin and mother of 4 children. She joined the team as coordinator of the volunteer pool “Community Voices”. She has known GAMS for several years already.

Mariama is trained in Business Administration (Master), in animation of socio-cultural projects, and in intercultural mediation. She also has a degree in the management of cross-cultural institutions.

Mariama has been leading this struggle for many years now. She participated in the national forum of the girl child in 2005 in Conakry, Guinea. According to her, the fight must also be led within the communities by the members of these communities. Coordinating the community relays is therefore logical for her. The fight against female genital mutilation is an ongoing battle.

Jihan, a Lebanese sociologist, has been working as a qualitative research officer at GAMS since October 2023. Specializing in societies of the Arabian Peninsula, she conducts field investigations in the Sultanate of Oman, Kuwait, and Qatar. Her doctoral thesis, defended at Sciences Po (Paris, 2015), focuses on transformations in marriage and procreation in the Gulf region. Her postdoctoral research, conducted at OMAM-MSH (Free University of Brussels) in 2022-2023, addresses the issues of slavery and gender in contemporary Omani novels written by women.

In continuation of her work on gender, Jihan is working at GAMS on female genital mutilation within Arab communities living in Belgium. She aims to contribute to amplifying the voices of Arab women and gaining a better understanding of their practices related to female genital mutilation.

Bountou is a cultural animator by profession, but for nearly a dozen years, she dedicated herself to health promotion with Doctors without Borders in Guinea, working on the HIV/TB project in Conakry, particularly in the psychosocial aspect of caring for people living with HIV. Following this, Bountou continued her commitment to health promotion by working on MSF projects related to vaccination against COVID-19, diphtheria, and measles, especially during the reception crisis in Belgium at the end of 2022 and throughout the summer of 2023.

Bountou discovered GAMS during her asylum procedure when she sought to protect her daughter from excision. Today, she has joined GAMS with a renewed determination to be more actively involved in this fight, so that her community fully understands the necessity of abandoning this practice.

Zahraa, of Moroccan origin, holds a bachelor’s degree in English literature. She has explored various aspects of this discipline, including gender studies, and has developed a keen interest in this field of study. In 2020, she completed an internship in the municipality of her city, Kénitra, and successfully underwent an accelerated TOSA Suite Office training in 2023.

As the author of “The Girl Who Sees Everything,” a story giving voice to a young woman and highlighting themes related to psychology, mental health, and harassment, Zahraa joins GAMS as an administrative assistant within the Administration and Finance team. Her vision is aligned with the ongoing advocacy for women’s rights, and she is convinced that she can fully contribute to the NGO’s mission.

Carolina Neira Vianello grew up in Chile and studied Nursing care as well as Social intervention and communautary health. 

She began working for GAMS Belgium in 2009 within the framework of the End FGM Campaign, that was launched by Amnesty International Ireland, and that has now become the End FGM Network. 

In 2011, she started animating community workshops (Monthly gatherings, Youth Workshop, Children’s workshop…). She is now also in charge of social monitoring and social support as part of the psychosocial team.

Feven is intercultural worker at GAMS Belgium. Before she started working as an employee in December 2019, Feven was a volunteer for 7 months.

She studied accounting In Eritrea and then worked as Accountant and junior Auditor. Feven arrived in Belgium at the end of 2016 and speaks many languages: Tigrinya (an Eritrean language), Amharic (an Ethiopian language) as well as English. She is also learning French.

Pauline is a midwife, her professional and personal paths have been guided by the defence of women’s rights, in particular in the fields of sexual health and respectful accompaniment of births and parenthood.

This is not the first time that GAMS has come across her. Indeed, she was a volunteer for almost 10 years, notably by co-creating birth preparation sessions for women affected by FGM.

Pauline has joined our team to continue these activities, to develop projects of continuous training for professionals and to work in collaboration with ONE (Office de la naissance et de l’enfance).

Mélanie Jocquet is the coordinator for Wallonia. She is responsible for the Namur branch and is in charge of setting up projects and developing GAMS Belgium throughout Wallonia. She is mainly based at the Namur branch but is also present at the Liège branch.

Before joining our team in 2020, Mélanie already worked in a social service specialising in the rights of migrants. She provided assistance to people who asked for help with their various procedures (asylum, family reunification, regularisation, …). She also did the same work in penal institutions and offered social and legal support to detainees who requested it.

She also worked for an NGO working to improve access to health care for people in emergency situations.

Through these various meetings, she became aware of the particular vulnerability of women who experience a continuum of gender-based violence, both in their country of origin, during their migration process and during their asylum procedure in Belgium.

Psychologist

Valentine Hayet has always been concerned with the well-being of others, which led her to choose a career dedicated to helping people. She pursued her studies at UCLouvain, obtaining a degree in Clinical Psychology of Children, Adolescents, and Families, followed by an advanced degree in Integrated Psychotherapeutic Clinical Practice.

For five years, Valentine worked as a psychologist in an emergency shelter for families at NewSamusocial. Through this experience, she discovered GAMS and worked with marginalized and exiled individuals, including many victims of domestic violence. This exposure deepened her interest in gender-based violence, inspiring her to become more actively involved in combating these issues. Consequently, she decided to join GAMS, where she continues to contribute to the fight against gender-based violence.

Louise Da Via joins the team in Liège as a branch manager. A social worker by training, she also completed a first year master’s degree in conflict prevention and management.

She first worked in a youth centre in the Province of Liège and then in the Aide et Protection de la Jeunesse in France.

She is committed to fighting against inequalities. By joining the GAMS Belgium team, she gives meaning to her work and gets up every morning with the will to change things in a team that shares her values.

Fos Mohamed Nur is a community animator at GAMS Belgium. An activist for many years in the fight against female genital mutilation, and working as a volunteer at GAMS Belgium since 2014, when she followed training to become peer educator, Fos became fully employed in 2017. During her volunteer work, she accompanied women and if necessary did the translation from Somali into French.

Now she assumes a genuine role of accompaniment and listening, ready to make the beneficiaries of GAMS Belgium aware of their right to say no to what goes against their integrity without implying rejection of their original culture. In other words, Fos helps women to find a balance between self and culture

Katrien studied Social Science at the VUB and obtained a Masters Degree in Gender Studies at the University of Utrecht. She has worked for GAMS Belgium since 2014. She coordinates the activites in Flanders working in both Brussels and Antwerp where the Flanders Branch is located. “I accompany men as well as women individually. Every last Friday of the month, group activities are held in Antwerp, where we discuss different topics. Finally we follow reports relative to situations involving the risk of FGM.”

The Flanders Branch also provides made-to-measure training courses around FGM and every year initiates innovative projects with the backing of investors.

Ewout is the new social worker in Antwerp.

During his work at the Rode Kruis-Vlaanderen reception centre in Lint, he was quickly confronted with female genital mutilation, gender violence and their psychological consequences. But he was always able to see the perseverance of those affected. It is therefore both the confrontation with the issue and the admiration he felt that encouraged him to join the mission of GAMS Belgium.

A graduate in social work, Ewout is also trained in suicide prevention and in the procedure and orientation of applicants for international protection.

Ewout is now ready to bring his experience and commitment to the development of GAMS Belgium in the Antwerp region.

In 2016, Jannelore earned her degree in Clinical Psychopedagogy and then pursued a master’s in Sexology. During her studies, she had the opportunity to conduct research on female genital mutilation (FGM) and perceptions of sexuality in Guinea through her collaboration with the association Ankié. Her visit to Guinea and the completion of her thesis profoundly impacted her career and reinforced her interest in delving deeper into this crucial topic.

The common thread throughout her professional experiences has been working with people in flight and/or who have experienced traumatic events. At the CAW, Jannelore supported individuals in distress in Brussels and its surroundings, while in Lesbos, she provided assistance to newly arrived refugees in Europe.

GAMS has been on her radar for several years, and Jannelore is delighted to have the opportunity to work here. She is eager to share the knowledge she has gained from her past experiences while continuing to learn from the people she will meet at GAMS.

Aminata Keita, originally from Guinea Conakry, has joined the Flanders team as a intercultural worker. She studied in her home country and is currently taking Dutch lessons in Antwerp, where she lives. She loves sport (especially walking) and is passionate about nature.

She got to know GAMS through its reception center. The dynamism of the GAMS team strengthened her. This motivated her to join the team.

Aminata has worked for Le Monde des Possibles as a social interpreter, speaking Malinké-French and French-Soussou. She also trained as a peer educator at GAMS.

She is happy to be an intercultural worker for GAMS.

Jente studied law at Ghent University, specialising in human rights, migration law and criminal law. In 2019, for example, she took part in the “Legal action against human rights violations” project at Ghent University’s Human Rights and Migration Law Clinic.

After her studies, she began working as a lawyer at the Ghent Bar, where she specialised in immigration law, family law and private international law. Jente also trained as a certified mediator, specialising in family matters.
She has assisted clients with their applications for international protection and other residence procedures, during which some of them have been confronted with FGM. This is how she discovered Gams, whose feminist activism immediately appealed to her.

In September 2023, Jente joined the GAMS team in Brussels and Flanders as a legal adviser.