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

  • United Nations Commemoration of World Torture Day 22 June 2018
  • WFP Masvingo August 2020
  • Socially distanced workshop Masvingo June 2020
  • WFP Morgenster Mavhuro Garden Mwenezi 2020
  • Pro peace activities 2020
  • TOL Zimbabwe
  • TOL Zimbabwe
  • TOL Zimbabwe
  • TOL Zimbabwe
  • TOL Zimbabwe
  • TOL Zimbabwe

Tree of Life

Tree of Life (Zimbabwe) is a local Private Voluntary Organisation (PVO No. 95/26) focusing on individual, family and community wellbeing and resilience building. Since 2003, ToL has been providing evidence-based, community-based mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) approaches that help people living with trauma to reconnect with self, nature, family and community. We also provide effective Social Cohesion interventions that complement and strengthen other development and humanitarian interventions that increase resilience and collective agency and productive collaboration. Tree of Life (ToL) works in 8 of the 10 provinces across Zimbabwe, largely through a network of over 1500 seasoned Community-based Facilitators located across 22 districts. With a team of 11 core staff (down from 35 since the loss of USAID funding) ToL operates from 2 substantive offices (in Harare and Bulawayo). ToL also collaborates with other Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) nationally and internationally, by providing capacity building in Trauma Informed Care processes, as well as through the provision of Trauma Healing and Psychosocial Support services. In support of Zimbabwe's Vision 2030, ToL's interventions feed directly into the Zimbabwe National Development Strategy (NDS2) strategies including "Health and Wellbeing", "Mental Health", "Gender equality and women empowerment", "Strategies against GBV", "Expanding survivor support services", "combatting drug and substance abuse", "community-based interventions", "empowerment and resilience building", "social inclusion", "child protection and development", "youth empowerment", "youth leadership", "youth entrepreneurship" and more. Women and Youth are at the center of our work with over 65% of our beneficiary base being women and close to 30% of our participants being youth. Through our network of over 1500 trained community facilitators across Zimbabwe, capacitated over the last 16+ years, ToL has the human resource capacity to provide evidence-based MHPSS and Social Cohesion support to 450,000+ people a month or over 5,400,000 people a year.

Our Vision: A healed and resilient cohesive society

Our Mission: To inspire peaceful communities through processes of well-being and social cohesion

Goal: Tree of Life will be recognised as an organisation that inspires relevant and scalable collective trauma healing processes that are evidence-based

Our Theory of Change: If trauma is dealt with through a group-based community-rooted process, including both victims and key people, then social-cohesion will increase, enabling reconciliation, peace and development to happen.

Gender Focus: To advance the safety and empowerment of women and girls, all of Tree of Life's interventions have a strong Gender equity, inclusion and protection focus to ensure that gender equality and protection are mainstreamed in our partner communities. To date over 65% of Tree of Life's beneficiary base are females with over 50% of our 1500 community facilitators being women.

Between 2003 and December 2025, we have directly reached over 230,000 people (indirectly 2 million+) as follows:

  • Facilitated over 2,000 Trauma Healing & Empowerment workshops for over 20,000 trauma survivors with over 65% of clients being women (over 90% of our trauma healing participants followed-up recorded greatly reduced levels of anxiety, depression and PTSD).
  • Trained over 1500 Community-based Facilitators (CFs) across 8 Provinces (over 50% being women) being 400+ Trauma Healing Facilitators and over 1100 Psychoeducation and Psychological First Aid trainers able to conduct workshops and Community Cohesion Facilitators able to support their communities daily
  • Reached over 30,000 youth (since 2016) with youth empowerment, social protection and business development interventions through the establishment of close to 100 youth groups across Zimbabwe
  • Conducted Psychoeducation and Singing to the Lions (STL) workshops for over 1000 Children and trained over 30 trainers as STL facilitators
  • Conducted Gender mainstreaming and Protection Mainstreaming capacity building to over 250 community volunteers
  • Trained & Mentored 15 Regional Facilitators from Sub-Saharan Africa in Trauma Healing
  • Provided psychoeducation workshops for over 40,000 people, including community leaders, youth, women, communities and NGO staff
  • Facilitated thousands of referrals for further psychological support
  • Reached 157,938 people with COVID-19 Psychosocial support and awareness during the Covid Pandemic
  • Received close to US$20,000,000 (twenty million US Dollars) in funding from over 20 donors, including two direct grants from USAID exceeding US$11,000,000

  • Been in consortiums led by: World Food Programme (WFP), Catholic Relief Services (CRS), Childline, Island Hospice, Trocaire and Welthungerhilfe (WHH) and more

  • Collaborated with over 45 other Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and Faith Based Organisations (FBO's) in 37 Projects 

  • Developed Training modules in: Psychosocial Awareness and Coping Skills (PACS); Psychosocial First Aid (PFA); Trauma Informed Care (TIC) Practices; Self-Care (SC); Covid-19, and Bereavement and Loss support; Training in Mentorship Skills for Mental Health
  • In 2026 ToL became a co-chair of the Heads of Agencies in Zimbabwe. Since 2023 Tree of Life have been the Chair of the Protection Working Group reporting to the Heads of Agencies in Zimbabwe, working closely with leading agencies with mandates to prevent and respond to violence against women and children.

 

REPORTS AVAILABLE 

USAID ToL Longitudinal Study Synopsis 2024.pdf

Tree of Life - WFP Zambuko End of Project Evaluation Report 2022 (Click Report or see end of this page for a link)

Tree of Life - WFP Zambuko Graphic Report_2022 (Click Report or see end of this page for a link)

Download the Annual Report - 2024  (Click Report or see end of this page for a link)

Download the Annual Report - 2023  (Click Report or see end of this page for a link)

Download the Annual Report - 2022 (Click Report or see end of this page for a link)

Download the Annual Report - 2021 (Click Report or see end of this page for a link)

Download the Annual Report - 2020   (Click Report or see end of this page for a link)

Download the Annual Report - 2019  (Click Report or see end of this page for a link)

Download a healing workshop brochure  (Click Brochure or see end of this page for a link)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Recent Stories

USAID Longitudinal Study evidences the Long-Term impact of ToL’s key interventions
“ToL programs not only benefited the physical and mental health of participants but also improved individuals’ lives, family dynamics and friendships and brought together communities as a whole.” – USAID external evaluators, The Cloudburst Group

Between the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024, long standing Tree of Life funders USAID Zimbabwe, commissioned a longitudinal Study on the long-term effects of Tree of Life’s core interventions: the Tree of Life Trauma Healing & Empowerment Workshop (TH&E) and the Psychosocial Awareness and Coping Skills (PACS) workshop. The study included over 800 randomly selected ToL beneficiaries, many of whom had participated in ToL workshops from as far back as 2014. Impressively, both interventions proved to have had a positive long-term positive effect at both individual and societal levels (see USAID 2 pager synopsis in the reports section for more).

Key findings from the study:

1. Program Impact: The Tree of Life initiatives, specifically the Trauma Healing and Empowerment (TH&E) and the Psychosocial Awareness and Coping Skills (PACS) workshops, had a transformative effect on participants. These effects were observed in individual mental and physical health, family dynamics, and community cohesion.

2. Skill Utilization: Participants reported high uptake and use of skills learned in the workshops, applying them in various personal and communal contexts. The evaluation highlighted the flexibility of these skills, catering to diverse demographic needs.

3. Community Initiatives: Enhanced community cohesion led to various community-led projects such as drilling boreholes, building roads, and starting savings groups, showcasing the programs' extended benefits beyond the individual.

4. Youth Engagement: Both programs were particularly effective among youth, leading to reduced substance misuse, increased civic participation, and decreased violence.

Recommendations for Future Programming:

1. Program Expansion: It's recommended that the funder design a follow-on activity leveraging the successes of the Tree of Life programs to further enhance community and individual well-being.

2. Rapid Response Mechanism: Future programs should include mechanisms for quick deployment during crises, like political instability, to provide immediate support and refresher trainings.

3. Focus on Youth: Given the success with youth, new initiatives should especially target youth and school-aged children to maximize the positive impacts seen in these demographics.

4. Integrated Approach: A combination of TH&E and PACS should be employed to maximize individual healing and social cooperation benefits.

5. Integration with Other Programs: Future programs should align with other USAID initiatives in health and livelihoods to enhance overall impact, drawing on the positive feedback from integration in past projects.

Our Principles

Respect - We treat others as equals and embrace our differences

Responsibility- We accept our duty of mutual care and to make constructive contributions

Integrity- Always to the right thing and speak with honesty

Connection - We believe in the power of community, collaborations and partnerships

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