A story of systems change
“I lost a young patient because her family couldn’t afford the bus fare to reach the hospital. That moment changed how I understood care.” In Zimbabwe, there is just one psychiatrist for every 1.5 million people.
Rather than waiting for more specialists, Ashoka Fellow Dixon Chibanda turned to the custodians of community wisdom, grandmothers. He trained them to offer simple, evidence-based therapy on wooden park benches.
Today, more than 2,000 grandmothers run Friendship Benches across Zimbabwe and beyond, offering safe spaces for people to talk, heal, and reconnect. The work gives older women purpose, strengthens their own well-being, and brings mental health care directly into communities. Because when people begin to talk, that’s when healing begins.
