Friendship Bench creates safe spaces and a sense of belonging in communities to enhance peoples quality of life. We do this by training community health workers to provide basic problem solving therapy on wooden park benches to people living with mild to moderate mental health conditions.
Mission statement
The Friendship Bench mission is to get people out of depression. Guided by our values of empathy and connectedness, anchored in research we envision a world where a Friendship Bench is within walking distance for all.
Key partners
We have six implementation partners in Zimbabwe.
Organization for Public Health Interventions and Development (OPHID) – The partnership is aimed at improving the quality of services for People Living with HIV) by enhancing mental health screening and referrals. We also partnered to deliver the COVID-Go programme providing mental health to frontline works.