Park benches and grandmothers: Zimbabwe's novel mental health therapy spreads overseas
Voice of America
Siridzayi Dzukwa, right, talks to Tambudzai Tembo outside her house near Harare, Zimbabwe, May 15, 2024. In Zimbabwe, talk therapy involving park benches and a network of grandmothers has become a saving grace for people with mental health issues. An empty bench is seen outside the Friendship Bench offices in Harare, Zimbabwe, May 4, 2024. Siridzayi Dzukwa, a grandmother, right, talks to a colleague while seated at a bench in Hatfcliffe on the outskirts of the capital Harare, Zimbabwe, May 11, 2024.
After her son, the family’s shining light and only breadwinner, was arrested last year, Tambudzai Tembo went into meltdown. In Zimbabwe, where clinical mental health services are scarce, her chances of getting professional help were next to zero. She contemplated suicide.
In this photo provided on condition of anonymity, Uyghur detainees who say they are facing deportation back to China, where they fear persecution and even death, sit in an immigration detention center in Bangkok, Thailand, in February 2024. Police stand outside an immigration detention center where Uyghur detainees are held in Bangkok, Thailand, Jan. 11, 2025. This photo, provided on condition of anonymity, shows a letter dated Jan. 10, 2025, pleading for help from the international community by Uyghur detainees who say they are facing deportation back to China.
FILE - Families displaced by RSF advances in Sudan's Gezira and Sennar states shelter in Kassala state, Sudan, July 10, 2024. Sudanese officials said on Jan. 11, 2025, that RSF rebels have been pushed out of Wad Medani, the capital of Gezira.
People arrive to attend Mass for the dedication and inauguration of the Church of the Baptism of the Lord at Al-Maghtas, Jordan, also known as Bethany Beyond the Jordan, on the eastern bank of the Jordan River on Jan. 10, 2025. Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, center, celebrates Mass for the dedication and inauguration of the Church of the Baptism of the Lord at Al-Maghtas, Jordan, also known as Bethany Beyond the Jordan, on Jan. 10, 2025.
FILE - Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and French President Emmanuel Macron leave the Elysee Palace after a lunch in Paris on June 20, 2024. Senegal is one of several African nations that have asked France to withdraw its troops from their territory.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, third from right, rings the bell during the relaunch of the Ethiopian Securities Exchange in Addis Ababa on Jan. 10, 2025.
Ukrainian rescuers inspect damage to a residential building following a drone attack in Kyiv on Jan. 10, 2025, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
FILE - People hold placards bearing portraits of Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi, who is arrested in Iran during a rally in support of Iranian women in Istanbul, on November 26, 2024.
FILE - Kwok Kwai, 65, poses for a photo inside his subdivided flat in Hong Kong, Aug. 8, 2024. FILE - Lee Kwan Kun, 60, sits in his 'coffin' home in Hong Kong, Aug. 15, 2024. FILE - Kwok Kwai, 65, poses for a photo inside his subdivided flat in Hong Kong, Aug. 8, 2024.
A handout photo released by the German Central Command for Maritime Emergencies on Jan. 10, 2025, shows the tanker Eventin as a towing connection is established from a tug boat at sea north of the German Baltic Sea island of Ruegen.
FILE - From left, U.S. President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hold a Quad meeting on the sidelines of a G7 summit, in Hiroshima, Japan, May 20, 2023. FILE - White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan speaks during a press briefing in Washington, Feb. 14, 2024. FILE - FILE - Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un exchange documents during a signing ceremony for a new partnership in Pyongyang, North Korea, June 19, 2024. FILE - President Donald Trump meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, June 29, 2019.
FILE - A doctor treats a Sudanese child suffering from malnutrition are treated at an MSF clinic in Metche Camp, Chad, near the Sudanese border, on April 6, 2024.