Recent Stories Archive

“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 &a

COMMUNITY LEADERS APPLAUD THE ADDITION OF ToL PACS WORKSHOPS TO THE ZAMBUKO LIVELIHOODS INITIATIVE 

Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Zimbabwe, like the rest of the world, declared a state of emergency on 20 March 2020. A nationwide lockdown was effected on 30 March 2020 and reviewed every fortnight thereafter. Tree of Life suspended all in-person activities complying with WHO and the Government of Zimbabwe measures to curb the spread of COVID-19. This included travel and business activities restrictions.

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.

Since 2017 Tree of Life has been working with young people under the Youth Empowerment for Peace (YEPP) project. The programme includes a variety of activities such as psychoeducation, trauma healing, livelihoods development and pro-peace activities. Over the last year the youth were trained in Team Building and Leadership Skills, Entrepreneurship Skills, Jewelry Making from beads and baking.  Our 3 pioneer communities also participated in Clean-Up Campaigns and Youth Dialogues.

So far, 2019 has been a challenging year for Zimbabwe.

The stay-away and subsequent violence in urban areas in January, and the devastating cyclone in the Eastern Highlands in March, have caused considerable distress and trauma. The huge numbers of people affected and the sheer scale of the trauma is such that Tree of Life needed to adapt our healing activities to meet immediate needs for coping skills before deeper healing processes can be delivered.

26 June, the UN International Day in support of Victims of Torture, also happens to be Tree of Life’s birthday. This year was our 15th birthday and so our theme for the commemorations was “15 years of Trauma Healing”. We held two tributes with Partners, on 22nd June, 2018, in the Northern and Southern regions respectfully. The commemorations celebrated the long history of Tree of Life in trauma healing for survivors of torture and organized violence and the power of support love and community in the healing process.

On 3 November 2017 the Tree of Life community held their final All Partners meeting for the year. The occasion was particularly special as we also held a graduation ceremony for 39 new Community-Based Facilitators. To date over 130 survivors from 16 communities have completed their training as Trauma Healing and Empowerment Facilitators. They have undergone an intensive training process (for 2 years or more) and are now able to support their respective communities on their healing journeys.

Through technical and capacity building support, the Centre for Victims of Torture (CVT) Partners in Trauma Healing (PATH) program enables torture rehabilitation centres throughout the world to expand their ability to provide high quality mental health services to survivors (see http://www.cvt.org/partners-trauma-healing for more). In 2016 Tree of Life was selected as a PATH Partner, being one of just 3 Partners in Africa and 6 Partners globally (currently).

On 24 March 2017 the Tree of Life community held their Annual General Meeting (AGM). Around 100 community-based partners from 7 Provinces across the country were in attendance. The important business of adopting the 2016 audited accounts and Annual report were done swiftly. We also appointed our Bankers and Auditors for 2017. The highlight of the day were several powerful testimonies by rural community facilitators who shared that previously fragemented communities are now reconciling after decades of conflict, all because of the Tree of Life healing workshops.

On 27 January the Tree of Life community met for their very first 2017 All Partners meeting.  Over 50 community based partners from all around Zimbabwe graced the occasion. Partners were able to share their achievements of 2016 as well as their plans, hopes and aspirations for 2017. The new year is certainly geared to be a busy and fruitful year!

Tree of Life was selected to make an oral presentation at the IRCT Symposium this December. With support from the Center for Victims of Torture (CVT) we presented on our collaborative Journal Article: “Community Intervention During Ongoing Political Violence: What Is Possible? What Works?” – being a study that has contributed to knowledge on best practices for mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) in humanitarian settings.