External Collaborators

Vincent Sezibera

Biography: Vincent Sezibera, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Psychology (Clinical Psychology) and Director of the Centre for Mental Health, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Rwanda. He is also the Founding President of the Rwanda Psychological Society (RPS), a professional organization of psychologists in Rwanda. Prof. Sezibera received his doctorate in Psychology from the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium. He specializes in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Child and Adolescent Traumatic Grief. Research areas include the assessment of mental health poor outcomes from social crisis (genocide), domestic violence, intimate partner violence, and medical conditions (HIV, COVID-19). His contributions will be based on extensive experience in community education on trauma, resilience and trauma informed care in Rwanda and related work in a number of countries, including Benin, Republic of Central Africa, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, and South Africa. For the last three years Prof. Sezibera has been serving as Co-PI in Rwanda to the HEIDI Project (Health Equity in-Context/Interdisciplinary Initiative) in partnership with University of Western.

Innocent Iyakaremye

Biography: Rev. Dr. Innocent Iyakaremye has a PhD degree in Gender and Religion from University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), South Africa, a Master’s and a Bachelor with honours degrees in Theology and Development, two Bachelor degrees (Licence) in School Psychology and Demography. He is currently Senior Lecturer at Centre for Gender Studies, University of Rwanda, where he is teaching and supervising master’s and PhD dissertations since 2013. Prior to this position, he was independent consultant in strategic planning, evaluation and research, in the areas of development, gender and GBV. Since 2013, Iyakaremye is the Chair of the Council of Kibogora Polytechnic, a faith-based private university in Western Province. Since 2015, he was appointed by the Rwandan Cabined as member of Consultative Committee of Gender Monitoring Office. He is the co-founder of Channel of Love Foundation, a national charity organisation. He is a religious minister in Free Methodist Church in Rwanda and a farmer. His publications and research interests are gender, GBV, children and youth, and vulnerable people.