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Using the Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) Model, we:

HOLD HANDS
CREATE CONNECTION
CREATE SAFE SPACES
CREATE COMMUNITY
PROMOTE CONTINUED HEALING
CREATE INCOME

Peer-Led Support Groups

Circle Kubatana Tose - Holding Hands Together

After Friendship Bench clients have had their one-on-one sessions with a Community Health Worker they are invited to join Circle Kubatana Tose. These are peer led groups that provide clients with ongoing support. A circle is a safe space for people to come and share how they are coping with life or how they feel when they aren't coping with life.

Circles vary in size, age, gender, religion and mental health condition of the participants. When groups meet they are there for a common cause; and that is mental health recovery and support. Clients join the groups and although they start with a 'standard operating procedure' eventually they develop it to suit themselves, they unanimously agree on the time and date to meet, whether they like to open in prayer or prefer a song. It's about getting the people to take ownership and learn group decision making skills. 

WE CONNECT

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WE CREATE

WE SUPPORT

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We have found, and research has proven, that it is important to listen to others' experiences and to share your own experiences as part of the recovery journey. There is so much wisdom  to be learnt and passed on in lived experiences. When someone shares their problems and how they have overcome them or are managing to cope with them, it serves as hope for a peer who may be going through a similar experience but cannot see that it is possible to get through. Whether that is an HIV positive diagnosis, divorce, a lost child or depression, it helps to connect to someone who understands and who you can relate to. This bring a strong feeling of connection and belonging.

"We use our hands to support each others courage and hope, we use our hands to clap, to drum, to crochet and to hold the talking piece that provides the ground to share our struggles and in so doing reach out to others. In our hands we help the environment and make an income for our families, our hands are our tools and they are forever working. We believe that Lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent hands bring wealth, we work daily to bring spiritual wealth to our minds and financial wealth to our families."

ZeeBags Group, in Harare, Zimbabwe

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