F Member Bernadette Bio

Bernadette Nahimana

Bernadette Nahimana is a mother of 3 children and a secondary school teacher at Saint-Paul School in Bujumbura. Her background in philosophy and in clinical psychology from the Great Lakes University in Burundi, Bernadette has gained important insights from her academic study on the drivers of psychological development of street children in Burundi. Her conclusions highlighted that family environment coupled with lack of specialized social structures and expertise both in the household and the community fundamentally play a great role in the choice of spending some significant lifetime living in the street. The economic fate of their origins as solely determinant precondition of street child psychological development offers a simplified picture of this complex phenomenon. She has tried to apply these conclusions to other child development challenges such as instilling social and spiritual values, developing a high need for achievement such as creative habits, etc. in children. Bernadette is a positive psychologist who believes that investing in building child-centered education systems, whether formal or informal, is critical to the future of our society. She strongly believes that developing strong and collaborative social institutions will be the necessary investment to build healthy individuals and society. As a founding member of BMIL, Bernadette committed to contribute to setting up a more integrative vision of human social institutions in solving some of the daunting challenges of most developing countries such as poverty, lack of innovative opportunities, unemployment, etc. Before joining Saint-Paul School, Bernadette had offered volunteering work to the Centre Ubuntu in Bujumbura.

• Email: nahimaniganze01@gmail.com
• Phone: +257–61 113 585