South Africa is in the grips of a mental health crisis: one in four experience depression or anxiety in a country which remains plagued with high rates of unemployment and violence, and ranks among the lowest globally for mental wellbeing. With fewer than one psychologist for every 100,000 people, mental health support at state clinics focuses on the most acute conditions.

Zimbabwean psychologist Ncazelo Ncube-Mlilo has dedicated her career to developing “culturally sensitive” therapeutic tools. Her charity, Phola, reaches more than 10,000 women, men and children in townships around Johannesburg every year. Every Wednesday, 30 women meet in Orange Farm township for an hour, their notebooks decorated with stickers spelling out “COURRAGE”. Each letter represents a session’s theme in an eight-week group counselling programme, which asks participants to reframe trauma as stories of survival and strength.