Maria Caterina Ciampi (CAN)

Based between Senegal and Canada, Maria Caterina is a social worker and public health specialist with over two decades of sustained field experience across Africa — including Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, and Kenya — leading and supporting multi-sectoral responses to gender-based violence across humanitarian and crisis-affected contexts.Her work is rooted in close collaboration with local health systems, women-led organisations, and community-led structures, with approaches shaped by the knowledge, priorities, and lived realities of the communities themselves, rather than externally driven agendas. She brings expertise at the intersection of health, protection, and psychosocial support, with a focus on survivor-centred and trauma-informed care, service quality, systems strengthening, and strategic partnerships. Maria Caterina consistently recognises local expertise as the foundation of safe, ethical, effective and accountable programming for survivors of violence.