Rhoda Phiri was having a hard time sleeping. She found it difficult to mingle with people in her community and at church. Even basic chores were hard. She was, she says, in a “dark corner.”  Then one day in 2020, a couple of women knocked on the door of her home in Zambia. The women were with StrongMinds, an international nonprofit that provides support for depression, particularly among women and adolescents. She accepted the women’s invitation to join a group therapy program, held under a tree in an area near her home, and as she learned about depression, she recognized the signs in herself.  “All the symptoms they were talking about, it’s like they were talking about me,” Phiri says. “It’s like they knew what I was going through.” Women in Zambia gather for group therapy. Courtesy of StrongMinds Phiri is among the estimated 280 million people around the globe who experience depression. Ranging in severity, the condition can have big implications for people’s daily functioning and quality of life. But while depression is widespread, options for mental health treatment are scarce, especially in low- and middle-income countries. In Zambia, for instance, there was an estimated total of 25 psychologists and psychiatrists as of 2020. Instead of relying on mental health professionals, StrongMinds offers group therapy facilitated by trained community members — often clients who have completed the treatment themselves, like Phiri. This group therapy model has proven to be an effective way to treat depression. Since the organization launched in 2013, half a million people have gone through the treatment program. Three-quarters of participants screened as being free of depression symptoms two weeks after completing it. “What we’ve learned in 11 years is that depression treatment can be, what we call, democratized,” says StrongMinds founder and executive director Sean Mayberry. “You can take it out of the hands of doctors and nurses and give it to the community itself.”