january-2019

32 / PEOPLE / TED speakers
PEOPLE / 33
Dr Dixon
Chibanda
Sisonke
Msimang
Born
Harare, Zimbabwe
Born
Manzini, Swaziland
Age
50
Age
44
Current Location
Harare, Zimbabwe
Current Location
Perth, Australia
Best known for
Pivotal role in bringing mental health treatment to
the masses
Milestone
Bringing the Friendship Bench to rural areas of
Zimbabwe… and now New York
Follow
@friendshipbench
TED Talk
Why I train grandmothers to treat depression.
(TEDWomen 2017)
Image: TED/Stacie Mcchesney Quote: Zimbabwe Situation June 2018
Best known for
Writing and incisive storytelling
Milestone
Becoming Executive Director at Open Society
Initiative for Southern Africa
Follow
@Sisonkemsimang
TED Talk
If a story moves you, act on it. (TEDWomen 2016)
Nick White
“Imagine all the wisdom and wealth of experience
someone has by the age of 80”
“You can’t force justice. It’s the result of working with people,
listening and creating opportunities for change”
MORE THAN 300 million people worldwide suffer from
depression, which, according to the World Health Organization,
mostly occurs in low- and middle-income countries, where suitable
treatment is scarce. In Zimbabwe, for example, there are only 12
psychiatrists for a population of 16 million people.
In 2005, Dr Chibanda was rocked by the death of a patient in
her mid-20s who couldn’t afford the bus fare to come to see him
for necessary treatment. In an attempt to find a solution to this
problem of depression, or kufungisisa (thinking too much), Dr
Chibanda began working with “grandmothers”, who, for decades,
have had a traditional role as community health workers in clinics
nationwide.
Using locally developed techniques – kuvhura pfungwa
(opening the mind); kusimudzira (uplifting); and kusimbisa
(strengthening) – supported by digital technology, he was able to
create an Evidence-Based-Therapy process that allows the grandmothers
to successfully treat depression and anxiety. And not even
in a clinical space, as treatment takes place on wooden benches,
where the grandmothers administer their unique therapy.
Today, in Harare alone, more than 40,000 people have
received treatment from hundreds of grandmothers on the socalled
Friendship Benches. Advice is also practical: helping with
income-generation and creating structures that people can use in
order to progress. The results are phenomenal: research shows
that six months after receiving treatment from a grandmother,
people were still symptom-free.
Dr Chibanda has gone on to establish Friendship Benches in
Zanzibar, Malawi, the Caribbean and even New York. Constantly
driven, he practices tai chi, and pursues and refines his work
helping people to receive effective mental health treatment.
“WE LIVE IN a time where we’re witnessing the decline of
facts,” says Msimang during her TEDWomen 2016 Talk. “A
recent report by the Pew Center on trends in America indicates
that only 10 percent of young adults under the age of 30 ‘place a lot
of trust in the media’.” Conversely, they do have more respect for
storytelling, which sets a dangerous precedent.
According to Msimang, facts are needed, together with stories,
to move the needle towards social justice. Even stories written
with the best intentions can have negative consequences by glossing
over real issues when they don’t include all of the facts of a given
situation. Msimang has a lot of experience dealing with people’s
everyday stories, which are often different to those that enter the
mainstream. In her recently released memoir, Always Another
Country, she speaks of “bearing witness to stories” while leading
the oral storytelling programme at the Centre for Stories in Perth,
Australia, where she helps refugees and diverse people to find
their voices.
Forged by a peripatetic lifestyle that wheeled her through
Zambia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Canada as the child of South African
freedom fighters in exile, Msimang’s outlook was heavily shaped
by her parents. “They had the capacity to respect the dignity of
each person, which is central to how I think about my work,” says
Msimang. On returning to South Africa in 1990, she entered the
world of activism, before moving towards journalism as disillusionment
with the Rainbow Nation dream set in. “The most
poignant story can get in the way of social justice,” she says in
the Kirkus Reviews (November 2018). “You feel like you have...
befriended that death row inmate. But you didn’t. So stories
become useful only if they allow you to think about the world,
become more critical and act in better ways.”