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Through 'The Friendship Bench,' grandmothers address a mental health crisis

Here & Now Newsroom

22 Apr, 2025

Here & Now's Deepa Fernandes speaks with psychiatrist Dixon Chibanda about his new book "The Friendship Bench: How Fourteen Grandmothers Inspired a Mental Health Revolution."


It's the story of how Chibanda enlisted the help of 14 grandmothers to provide counseling to Zimbabwe's woefully underserved population. The program has trained more than 3,000 grandmothers and inspired similar programs worldwide.


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