The platform
Our story and our mission
WEERU_PSY grew out of a simple observation: in Senegalese communities, in Africa as in the diaspora, psychological distress is lived through in silence.
- Origin
- The silence, in Senegalese communities and across the diaspora.
- Form
- An association, a cross-disciplinary team, a light platform.
- Footing
- France, Senegal, and the diaspora cities.
The observation
In Senegalese communities, in Africa as in the diaspora, psychological distress is lived through in silence. Sources of information are scarce, hard to find, and often written in an imported register that says nothing about the realities people live: family pressure, the mental load carried by women, the isolation of living abroad, the burnout of the entrepreneur, the silence around low mood, the place of traditional healers.
Existing platforms fail on three counts. They speak an imported language, that of Western care. They ask for an identity before they give anything. And they are too heavy for the connections their audience actually has.
The name
WEERU_PSY, from the Wolof weer — to heal, to be in good health — joined to psychology.
What is not expressed leaves its mark.
The mission
Opening up access to psychological wellbeing through preventive and educational support: listening, emotional support, awareness, personal development. The platform steps in before serious difficulties appear, and works to reduce stigma within foreign communities, Senegalese ones above all, at home and abroad.
The limit we set ourselves
We do not replace a treatment. When medical follow-up is needed, we walk you towards it rather than stand in for it. This limit is not a turn of phrase: it is what defines what we do, and what we do not do.
How we work
The approach is hybrid. Remotely, through the platform: webinars, educational resources, online support. In person, through sessions and workshops in key places in Senegal and in several diaspora cities, Paris first among them.
Three commitments hold the whole together. Transparency: keeping the people we support regularly informed of the services offered. Effectiveness: producing concrete, measurable results. Continuous improvement: adjusting the services in line with the feedback we receive.
Double exposure: a silhouette within a profile
The gap we fill
Three ways existing platforms fail
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An imported register, that of Western care.
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An identity demanded up front. Here, never.
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A weight unreal for the connections people really have.
Who for
Three groups come first, and here is what they carry
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Learners, in the diaspora above all
Isolation, pressure over results, distance from family. Hence evening webinars across two time zones, and a way in that asks for no name.
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Business owners and freelancers
Mental load, professional exhaustion, being alone at the moment of deciding. Hence short formats and appointments outside working hours.
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Young people in difficult circumstances
Broken paths, no steady adult to turn to. Hence a named contact backed by a deputy, and support over time.
What that demands
The audience commands the engineering, never the reverse
Why is this site so light?
People read on a phone
- The site is designed at three hundred and sixty pixels wide, then widened.
The network is often slow or unstable
- The weight of every page is capped and measured at each release.
Some browsers run nothing at all
- Content pages read without JavaScript, and forms post to the server.
Dakar and Paris are not on the same clock
- Every time announced carries both zones.
This cannot wait?
If you are going through a hard moment right there, right now, you do not have to come through us. Here are the immediate help resources for your territory — open with no account, and readable even with no connection.