Friendship Bench Zimbabwe Celebrated in the 2025 World Happiness Report

Happiness on a Bench!

The 2025 World Happiness Report has recognized Friendship Bench Zimbabwe for its exceptional impact as a community based mental health intervention, highlighting the organization’s innovative and culturally rooted approach of training grandmothers (Gogos) to be Lay counsellors in the communities they are living in. Friendship Bench has to date has seen over 814,687 clients since 2016 with 82% showing significant decrease in depression.  

In a key chapter the Happier Lives Institute introduced the WELLBYS (wellbeing years) as a key to evaluate the effectiveness of charitable efforts. To estimate the effect of these charities, HLI combined evidence from different sources which included:  

1. 84 randomized control trials (RCTs) of psychotherapy delivered in low- and middle-income countries.  

2.  4 Randomized control trials from Friendship Bench and 1 for StrongMinds  

3. Monitoring and evaluation pre-post data collected by the charities. 

   
   

The analysis revealed that community driven mental health interventions in low-income communities deliver a remarkable return on investments and Friendship Bench (Zimbabwe) was recognized for its significant work in providing sustainable community based mental health support that is evidence based, scalable, and accessible. In the report HLI highlighted that “Strong Minds (in Uganda and Zambia) and Friendship Bench (in Zimbabwe) are two charities scaling access to basic mental healthcare in Sub-Saharan Africa using lay practitioners to deliver psychotherapy to people with depression or anxiety”. 

HLI’s findings indicate that targeted investments within communities, like those provided by Friendship Bench Zimbabwe, yield substantial improvements in individuals and collective wellbeing revealing that donating $1,000 to a highly effective charity can generate the same wellbeing impact as donating $150,000 to an average charity.

The Friendship Bench model demonstrates the profound impact of investing in accessible, community-driven mental healthcare solutions. As the World Happiness Report 2025 highlights, these interventions offer a remarkable return on investment, not only in terms of wellbeing, but also in building resilient and thriving communities.  

Global leaders, donors, and organizations are urged to recognize the power of community-based mental health initiatives and to invest in scaling these proven models. By supporting mental health initiatives individual lives are transformed, and a more just and equitable world, where mental wellbeing is accessible to all, is fostered. The goal is to build a future where mental health is a priority and where every community has the resources to heal and flourish. 

With your help, we can reach more people. We invite you to:

• Donate: Your contributions can help us expand mental health access.

• Spread the word: Help us raise awareness by sharing the story with your friends and family.

  
  

Together, we can build stronger, healthier communities and promote collective healing. Contact us to learn more about how you can get involved.