Tree of Life

The Tree of Life Trust Zimbabwe is a non-governmental organisation whose vision is to create a healed and empowered society that puts its energy into processes of peace, recovery and reconciliation. We provide community-based mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) approaches that help people living with trauma to reconnect with self, nature, family and community.

Between 2003 and September 2018 we have:

Facilitated over 1527 trauma healing workshops for close to 12,600 victims of organised violence and torture
Trained over 150 community-based survivors as volunteer trauma healing facilitators
Provided psychoeducation workshops for over 1500 people, including community leaders, youth, women, communities and NGO staff
Trained over 70 community-based survivors to conduct psychoeducation workshops
Conducted qualitative and quantitative research with the Center for Victims of Torture (CVT) and the Research and Advocacy Unit (RAU)

We monitor impact by measuring improvements in mental health outcomes of our beneficiaries, using the World Health Organisation SRQ-20 as a screening and follow-up tool.

Download a healing workshop brochure

Tree of Life Brochure

Recent Stories

ZAMBUKO PSYCHO-SOCIAL AWARENESS AND COPING SKILLS (PACS) WORKSHOPS IN MWENEZI

The three-day PACS workshops conducted in July 2020, included between forty two and forty eight participants per group, who are beneficiaries of the Zambuko project in its various assets. Four workshops were run concurrently, at different sites, with 2 Tree of Life facilitators and Village Health Workers (VHWs) to ensure compliance with the Covid 19 regulations. The contextually appropriate and relevant tools used generated highly participatory constructive community dialogues that created awareness on the impact of stress and trauma (at individual, family and community level), coping skills, supporting others, resilience and social cohesion. The dialogues gave the community members an opportunity to listen to each other, gain insights into their successes and challenges, including discussions on possible actions. It was noted that their general common broad vision is around becoming a self-reliant community that does not depend on hand-outs. They also worked on the small steps and activities to be undertaken in addressing barriers and strengthen the enablers as they work towards their vision.

The following are some of actions the communities would want to take forward:

Improve communication, transparency, openly addressing unfair distribution of inputs, corruption, favouritism and selfishness.
Ensure inclusivity and finding ways of involving more men and the youth in projects and rewarding the youth fairly, including them in leadership, listening to their ideas, and rotating leadership while adhering to the constitution.
Work with other organisations to get capacity building on marketing for their produce, livestock management, extending their gardens, growing a variety of crops and management skills of their small businesses.
Removing silt from the dam, so that they can harvest more water, and work towards procurement of pumps and pipes.

Our Principles

Do no harm
The ‘Circle’ is key
We work by invitation
Apolitical, non-partisan, inclusive
Balance competence and compassion
Always guard the integrity of the process
Be culturally appropriate, organic and adaptable
We work with humility, compassion, patience and respect
We are group-based, community-based and evidence-based
Work in the community, with the community for the community
We honour our interrelatedness and connectedness with each other and with nature

“A healed and empowered society that puts its energy into processes of peace, recovery and reconciliation”

Tree of Life

Recent Stories

Our Principles

Lets join hands today