KarunaNews Story

In Kenya, the Shamiri Institute is training 18-22 year-olds to provide counseling that enhances students’ resilience and problem-solving skills. In Africa, it is part of a shift in providing mental health care that leans on secondary-school graduates, grandmothers, community health workers and other laypeople. Shamiri is working with 100,000 students this year and on track to reach one million annually by 2027. StrongMinds, in Kampala, Uganda, treats depression using community health workers and people with a history of mental illness. Friendship Bench Zimbabwe, in Harare, which trains grandmothers in problem-solving therapy, has been replicated in Tanzania, Malawi, Jordan and Vietnam. Shamiri has spread to Ethiopia and South Africa.