7 Several small projects have been initiated in order to determine the efficacy of AMANI's counselling service. We are examining the efficacy of a single therapeutic interview, which may be described as a very simple approach to debriefing. A single therapeutic interview, supplemented by family visiting, seems to be the most useful intervention in the rural setting where patients are unable to return for regular weekly or fortnightly sessions. A selected group of patients needing counselling has formed the cohort, and are being followed up at 3, 6 and 12 month intervals. Additionally, a project to assess the efficacy of family therapy is being developed, and the first few families have been seen. (ii)Training Progamme: The training programme aims to create the capacity in the District to manage the problems of the survivors, but it attempts to do this within the context of a primary care psychiatry service. We believe that a programme will survive if it meets the needs of may different groups, but that a programme focused upon one group only will not. In 1995, staff from the hospitals in the District were trained in a basic psychiatric management approach, supported by a specially prepared manual. The programme was later extended to the staff of the Rural Health Centres. The staff at these centres, 22 in all, participated in a series of 5-day workshops, and were then followed up for supervision purposes by AMANI staff at their work stations. In 1996, 2 groups of staff chosen from amongst the previously trained personnel began an advanced counselling course; one group from each of the 2 participating hospitals. This course aimed at providing each hospital with a core group of trained counsellors, capable of managing individual, group, family and trauma counselling to referred patients from within the hospital and from the rural health centres. In Zimbabwe, as in other developing countries, access to an experienced physiotherapist is rarely possible for many patients in the community. To obviate this problem, Zimbabwe has developed a cadre of health worker, the Rehabilitation Technician (RT), to assist the physiotherapist and occupational therapist. These workers are based at district hospitals, and provide the first line of care for patients with physical disabilities, providing basic assessment and rehabilitation. AMANI has begun a project to train these health workers in the assessment and management of trauma victims, including torture and organised violence. This project has been developed together with the Provincial Rehabilitation Department of Mashonaland Central Province. The project is in two phases, and will last approximately 12 months, and it is hoped that the project will result in basic assessments and treatments being available for trauma victims, including torture survivors, at the district hospital level.. (iii)Community Programme: This is the slowest of the programmes to develop, but has no less importance. The survivors are invited to community meetings to discuss their problems as they seen them, which is the first step in creating a network of families. The home visiting leads to local meetings of groups of families, where they share their experiences and talk about their current problems. The current problems always revolve around poverty and its effects. The AMANI Trust, in responding to these concerns, has begun a programme to address these, which revolves around sustainable agriculture, or “permaculture”, small-scale income generating projects, and we hope in the future to address the problem of deforestation. The emphasis will be on training again, with the community making the decisions about what projects to embark on and how to organise themselves. Here we hope that the disempowerment of the 1970’s will be practically combated by economic empowerment in the present. Conclusions: The aim of our programme is to empower people, not to impose anything upon them, and thus we are patiently waiting to see the community response so we can, in partnership, develop structures and processes. It is axiomatic to us that the process should be empowering, and nothing like the processes that originally harmed the community: the community must have a very strong say in what develops and what is created. The community must itself break the imposed silence of organised violence in order to be free. Thus, breaking the silence is the crucial therapeutic process for us. When people are able to tell their stories fearlessly and with pride, then the process of disempowerment is ended. Human rights begin and end with the right to tell our own stories, free of intimidation and abuse, and, for the survivors in Mount Darwin District, this requires the courage to break the silence. Community development can only begin when the community finds its voice, which requires the breaking of the silence.