Mitchelle-Ngata Delivering Shamiri-Intervention to students at Ngenia High School

Anansi, the spider that glues things together

In West African folklore, "Anansi" is the spider that uses creativity and innovation to glue things together. In Shamiri folklore, "Anansi" is the system that allows us to glue together the various elements of our mental health solution.

Over four years, we have developed, tested, and refined a cost-effective and evidence-based innovation called Anansi. Anansi integrates two essential elements:

Simple, stigma-free, empirically supported mental health interventions such as our "Shamiri" intervention
A three-tier for-youth and by-youth caregiving model that connects lay-providers, trained clinical supervisors, and clinical psychologists and psychiatrists

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Unique community-based delivery

About Limitless

Anansi is the infrastructure that allows us to deliver effective interventions to youths at scale. We have tested this model in four gold-standard RCTs and it works.

Anansi is unique because:

It has been rigorously tested in multiple scientific studies
Delivery is through a three tiered-model with lay-providers and community health workers which overcomes the paucity of caregivers
It is cost-effective and provides interventions 10x cheaper than alternatives
Anansi is simple and replicable in other regions

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the science behind anansi

natalie mukami giving the shamiri intervention to students at Ngenia High school

Through Anansi, we will reach 1 million youths by 2027

Community-based delivery

Local peer-to-peer delivery holds us accountable to the youths we serve

Character - strength interventions

Simple interventions, like Shamiri or Pre-Texts, delivered through Anansi

Tiered for-youth & by-youth caregiving

A youth-led tiered model that ensures everyone gets help

Here's what youth are saying:

"They help be because now I know how I could improve my mindset. How to improve in my study. How to improve in my talent."

“What I find most helpful this week is that when the teacher was teaching she/he told us that we should never give up in life or anything in this world and we should concentrate on our goals.”

“I can change my mindset. I can do better in school. I can change my mind to make me successful in life.”

35%

39%

18%

Improvement in depression symptoms

Improvements in social relationships

3%+

<$5

6x

Improvement in academic grades

Per session cost for delivering through Anansi

Cheaper than alternatives

Anansi, the spider that glues things together

Unique community-based delivery

About Limitless