Mental Health Masterclass, December 2026, online
Full Title of the Masterclass: Inside the Friendship Bench: Mechanisms, Methodology and Innovations that Decolonise Practice
The course is facilitated by Professor Dixon Chibanda, founder of the Friendship Bench, who holds chairs at the University of Zimbabwe and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and directs the African Mental Health Research Initiative (AMARI).
Overview: The Friendship Bench (FB) is a community based, evidence based mental health intervention founded in 2006 by Professor Chibanda in Mbare, Harare, Zimbabwe. Trained lay grandmothers, known as Gogo or Ambuya Utano, deliver structured problem solving talk therapy from benches at primary healthcare clinics. The grandmothers address kufungisisa, the Shona expression for thinking too much, which describes depression and anxiety, through culturally grounded care rather than imported clinical models.
Enrol by 30 October
Attendance is limited to 30 only.
This masterclass of 30 participants is presented by the Friendship Bench in partnership with Mtandao, Africa Social Work and Development Network. It sets out the mechanisms, methodology and innovations that make the Friendship Bench a model for decolonising mental health practice: an Africa initiated intervention that has since been replicated in over 12 countries across Africa, Europe, the Americas and Asia, used by global institutions including FIFA, and is now formally integrating into government structures in all 10 provinces of Zimbabwe.
The course covers the theoretical foundations, core methodology and practice mechanics of the model, including kufungisisa and the task sharing approach, alongside the evidence base that supports it, most notably the 2016 randomised controlled trial published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which found that grandmother delivered therapy outperformed therapy delivered by trained psychologists at six months.
Learning outcomes
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
Outcome 1: Describe the origins of the Friendship Bench, including its founding by Professor Dixon Chibanda in Mbare, Harare, in 2006, and its growth into a globally replicated model.
Outcome 2: Define kufungisisa and explain how this Shona concept reframes depression and anxiety in culturally grounded terms, rather than through imported clinical categories.
Outcome 3: Explain the task sharing approach used by the Friendship Bench, including the role of trained lay grandmothers, Gogo or Ambuya Utano, as the central delivery mechanism of the model.
Outcome 4: Evaluate the evidence base for the Friendship Bench, including the 2016 randomised controlled trial in the Journal of the American Medical Association and its recognition in the 2025 World Happiness Report.
Outcome 5: Assess how the Friendship Bench model functions as an example of Ubuntu led, decolonial mental health practice, and how it has scaled from a single site in Harare to national government integration and international adoption.
Features
Live online
Training delivered by the founder
Certificate
Evidence-based
No prior training in mental health required
Target audiences
This course is aimed at mental health professionals, social workers, community health workers, public health practitioners and Indigenous workers worldwide, alongside academics and policymakers interested in task sharing models, community delivered care, and decolonial approaches to mental health, reflecting the Friendship Bench’s own reach across more than 12 countries in Africa, Europe, the Americas and Asia, and its adoption by global institutions such as the WHO and FIFA.
Requirements
Two (2) hours of your time
Good internet connection
WhatsApp number to facilitate emergency communication, if required
Wazee Day of Older Persons, 9 October 2026, online
The 36th United Nations International Day of Older Persons (IDOP) will be commemorated under the theme “The Age of Longevity: Rethinking Systems for Longer Lives.” The theme invites the international community to reimagine how societies can make longer lives also healthy, productive, dignified and equitable. It calls attention to the role of systems, social protection, health and long-term care, work and lifelong learning, and enabling environments, in supporting people to age with security, dignity and continued participation.
In response, Mtandao and the Association of Schools of Social Work in Africa (ASSWA) will co-host Wazee Day Indaba 2026 on Friday, 9 October 2026 at 14:00 South Africa Standard Time (SAST). Now in its fourth year since launching in 2023, the event celebrates older persons in Africa under the values of being valued, included and empowered. This year’s presenters are Professor Stephan Geyer from the University of Pretoria, South Africa, and Dr Elizabeth Ajayi from Adekunle Ajasin University, Nigeria. The event is online and open to all.
Register here.
Recommended readings:
We have an MOU with Association of the Schools of Social Work in Africa (ASSWA) which guides are joint work. The MOU can be accessed below. As part of the MOU, we have formed a Joint Coordinating Committee (JCC). The current members of the JCC are:
Call for Special Issue Manuscripts: Journal of Ubuntu | Nyingi waUbuntu
Title of special issue: Ubuntu, dignity and death: re-imagining funeral justice and collective responsibility within indigenous communities
Submission email: Editor in Chief, Dr Xweso Mzukisi, North-West University, SA, ubuntu@africasocialwork.net
Editorial board members
Meinrad Haule Lembuka, The Open University of Tanzania
Yuvan Sankar, National Integrated Welfare and Development Trust (NIWAD), India
A/Prof. Mina M. Ogbanga, Rivers State University, Nigeria
Laison Mwiinde, Zimbabwe
Stanislaus Matindike, Zimbabwe
Dr Wilkins N. Muhingi, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya
Kudzai Mwapaura, Women’s University in Africa, Zimbabwe
Wilberforce Kurevakwesu, Midlands State University, Zimbabwe
Dr Sharlotte Tusasiirwe, Western Sydney University, Australia
Dr Oliver Mutanga, Nazarbayev University, Kazakhstan
Institute of Ubuntu Thought and Practice, African Studies Center, Michigan State University, USA
Dr Kenneth Yakubu, The George Institute for Global Health, Australia
Dr Deepika Saluja, The George Institute for Global Health, India
Most read page on our website
The most read webpage on Mtandao is https://africasocialwork.net/african-theories-of-social-work/ This page contains over 108 theories from African knowledge, including over 23 on Ubuntu.