Raising awareness
Normalising mental health as everyday self-care rather than crisis response, and fostering open dialogue in the languages people actually think in, English, Amharic, Kiswahili and Kinyarwanda.
About us
Mental health is the engine behind all meaningful progress.
Lebona is a preventive mental health platform for East Africa. We exist so that care starts long before a crisis, with everyday tools, and with human-guided access to verified psychologists in Ethiopia, Kenya and Rwanda.
Mental health underwrites physical health, social stability and economic resilience. Treat it as optional, and everything downstream gets harder.
Our story
Born from the field, built for prevention
My name is Yemisrach Elias, and Lebona began not from a personal mental health crisis, but from years of working directly in social and community development.
Walking into communities day after day, I saw a recurring pattern. We were trying to solve massive structural challenges, building peace, driving economic resilience, improving education, empowering youth. Yet beneath every programme, there was a missing foundational layer: the mental well-being of the people involved.
It became clear to me that a person's mental state is the engine behind all meaningful progress. When someone has stable mental health, it unlocks their mindset to take just, effective action in every area of life.
Peace building & conflict resolution
Emotional stability creates the patience and empathy needed to bridge divides.
Economic resilience
A grounded mindset enables better decision-making, adaptability and sustained entrepreneurship under stress.
Community leadership
Strong well-being equips people to support their families and advocate for change without burning out.
I realised we didn't need to wait for a crisis to start caring for our minds. Just as we invest in preventive physical health through nutrition and movement, we need accessible, everyday preventive mental health. That conviction is what gave birth to Lebona.
Why we focus on preventive mental health
Mental healthcare shouldn't only exist in emergency rooms or behind high-priced clinical doors. Consider a young professional navigating workplace stress: without daily management tools, that stress can gradually turn into severe burnout, isolation or anxiety.
Lebona is built to step in long before that breakdown happens. We believe that regular, proactive self-care builds the emotional immunity needed to handle life's challenges before they become critical.
We didn't need to wait for a crisis to start caring for our minds.
Everything you need, in one place
Lebona is an all-in-one platform designed to meet you wherever you are on your wellness journey across East Africa:
Daily check-ins & self-help tools. Low-friction, interactive resources such as guided breathing exercises, mood trackers and cognitive restructuring sheets, all of which help you keep your emotional balance every day.
Human-guided professional care. A thoughtful intake process where our care coordination team personally matches you with verified psychologists in Ethiopia, Kenya and Rwanda, tailored to your language, culture and goals.
Crisis & emergency helplines. Immediate, localised support hotlines for times when urgent intervention is needed.
Educational resources & skill building. Practical modules on stress management, emotional regulation and resilience, designed for everyday life.
Whether you are looking to build daily mental strength, work through personal goals with a professional, or simply explore self-guided tools, Lebona is here to walk alongside you.
Who we are
Five objectives we hold ourselves to
Early detection & intervention
Free, anonymous screenings adapted from PHQ-4, GAD-7 and WHO-5, so people can see where their stress sits long before it becomes a crisis, and act on it.
Accessible resources
A permanently free self-guided toolkit, subsidised therapy places, and local payment through Telebirr, M-Pesa, MTN and Airtel Money, so cost and bandwidth are not the reason someone stops.
Community engagement
Building resilient networks through peer support groups, workshops and outreach programmes that deliberately include men and young people.
Partnership & advocacy
Working with government agencies, NGOs, employers and professional boards across Ethiopia, Kenya and Rwanda to embed mental health into broader development agendas.
Our values
Four commitments, in practice
Values are only real if you can point at the decision they changed.
Compassion
Empathetic, respectful care for everyone on their journey. In practice: no one is asked to justify why they deserve support.
Inclusivity
Support regardless of country, gender, age or income. In practice: four languages across three countries, and subsidised places held open every month.
Empowerment
Knowledge, tools and community so people can take charge of their own well-being. In practice: our self-guided library stays free.
Innovation
Technology and community-driven approaches that reach people others miss. In practice: the platform works on 2G, on a borrowed phone, and over WhatsApp.
Our approach
Evidence-based, and at home in East Africa
Lebona integrates approaches with strong clinical evidence behind them with practices that are culturally legible in Ethiopia, Kenya and Rwanda. We do not treat those as opposites, and we lean toward the preventive end of each.
Structured work on the loops between thought, feeling and behaviour. CBT is the most extensively studied talking therapy in the world and adapts well to short courses and to messaging, which matters when travel to a clinic is the barrier.
Attention, breathing and body-awareness practice that reduces the physiological load of chronic stress. We teach it in five- and ten-minute forms, because an eight-week silent course is not realistic for most people we serve.
Explaining what is happening and why. For many people this is the single largest relief in the first session: the discovery that what they are experiencing has a name, a cause and a course, and is not a moral failure.
Faith leaders and traditional healers are, for millions of people across East Africa, the first place distress is taken. Rather than compete with that, we work alongside it, training willing partners to recognise warning signs and refer on, and matching clients with faith-informed therapists when they ask for one. This is always at the client's request, never assumed.
Worksheets, journals, habit tracking and guided audio that people can use between sessions or entirely on their own. Free, downloadable, and designed to make sense without a clinician sitting beside you.
Join us
A healthier, more resilient East Africa.
Whether you need therapy, training or a place to start on your own, or you want to help build this, there is a way in.