Beyond Aid — The Woman Behind the Work, online summit 8-11 April, 2026

A summit built around a question the humanitarian sector rarely asks

We talk a lot about the impact we create in the world. We talk very little about what this world does to us.

That is the premise of the Beyond Aid — The Woman Behind the Work summit: four days, online, entirely dedicated to the inner life of women working in humanitarian, human rights, and social impact spaces. Fifteen experts. Sessions on the body, the nervous system, identity, career transitions, leadership — everything that happens behind the mission.

From 8 to 11 April 2026, women speak to women, from the inside of the sector. Not to heroise humanitarian work. But to name what it truly costs and to explore what it would take to do it differently. CoCreate Humanity is pleased to be part of it.

Mental Health Peer Support: A Key Link in the Recovery Process of Psychologically Injured Humanitarian Workers

Thursday, April 9 @8am EDT / 2pm CET / 3pm EAT

Every humanitarian mission carries a human cost. And for women aid workers, this cost rarely gets named, let alone addressed. 

In this session, Géna Benavente and Noëmie Maclet offer a frank, cross-portrait conversation about the psychological toll of humanitarian work: the cumulative weight, the invisible wounds, and the pivotal moments that led them to join CoCreate Humanity, an organization providing mental health peer support to aid workers

Géna and Noëmie will present how structured and supervised peer support can provide a much-needed window for aid workers to breathe, reflect, and navigate invisible wounds left by their professional commitment. 

This session will offer participants a space to acknowledge and discuss psychological harm in the sector, the way it impacts women humanitarian aid workers, and to reflect on what meaningful peer support can look like in practice.

Practical information

Online Summit: 8–11 April 2026 | Online

CCH session: 9 April at 2:00 PM CET

Free registration: https://www.beyond-aid.com

Noëmie Maclet

Noëmie Maclet is a humanitarian professional specializing in protection, mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS), and peacebuilding. With over a decade of experience, she has worked on multiple frontlines (Sahel, Central Africa, East and Horn of Africa, Middle East), leading and supporting responses for populations affected by armed conflict, displacement, and severe human rights violations, as well as frontline responders exposed to high-intensity stress. Noëmie has worked across diverse contexts with several INGOs and UN agencies (including Search for Common Ground, OCHA, DRC, NRC) and has developed a strong expertise in the psychological and psychosocial impact of violence, displacement and conflict. 

Based in Marseille, France, since June 2024, she has been engaged since June 2025 with CoCreate Humanity as a peer supporter, and also serves as a first aid responder with the French Red Cross. Since 2024, she has been training in clinical psychology and EMDR psychotherapy, and is developing a practice focused on supporting aid workers and frontline professionals facing trauma and chronic stress.

Géna Benavente

Géna Benavente is a clinical psychologist with a Master's in clinical psychopathology and psychoanalytic psychology from Université Lyon 2, France. As the daughter of humanitarian workers, she spent seventeen years living across multiple countries (Uganda, Jordan, Niger, Soudan, DRC and Kenya), an experience that profoundly shaped her personality, her values, and her career path.

Growing up immersed in humanitarian realities sparked both her interest in psychotraumatology and her commitment to supporting the people who dedicate their lives to this work. She has been involved with CoCreate Humanity since 2022, first as an intern and contributor to the Hum'Animation project with the Gobelins school in Paris, and now as coordinator of an international team of 12 volunteer psychologists.

Géna brings together lived experience and clinical grounding in service of more humane support systems for humanitarian workers.

https://www.beyond-aid.com