Zimbabwe's 'Friendship Bench' wins €250,000 Africa Prize for mental health
The Friendship Bench, founded by Dr. Dixon Chibanda, won the 2026 KBF Africa Prize — €250,000 — for its pioneering model of mental-health care. Grandmothers trained as lay counselors sit on simple benches outside clinics across Harare and beyond, offering free talk therapy where there were once only 18 psychiatrists for 17 million people.
The upbeat factorA grandmother, a bench, and a conversation — therapy for millions.