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INTRODUCTION
Since its formation a decade ago, the Legal Resources Foundation has
successfully implemented an ambitious expansion programme that has, over the
years, culminated in the establishment of 13 legal advice centres,
recruitment of relevant professional staff and implementation of other
supportive projects. The Foundation has grown from being a Lusaka based
organisation employing only three administrative and professional staff in
1997, to that of a national institution with a presence in all but two of
Zambia's nine provinces and employing a staff of well over sixty in the year
2001.
The
establishment of provincial rural centres was preceded by a realisation of
the lop-sided dispensation of legal aid in which the urban population always
tended to be favoured in spite of being relatively better off financially
than the rural population. By going rural, the Foundation is being true to
its commitment to develop a human rights culture among the most vulnerable
groups and thereby laying the platform for lasting human values of freedom,
dignity and justice.
The
provision of legal aid continues to be the core activity of the Foundation,
as much as the vulnerable in society continue to be the high priority target
group for the organisation's legal aid services. However, the
ever-increasing demand for legal assistance and the surge of new cases have
placed huge demands on the Foundation, thereby enhancing the need for
innovative approaches to meet the sheer volume of cases to be attended to.
In particular, there was a phenomenal increase in demand for visitation of
LRF staff in the prisons and police stations. One successful approach in
this regard was to coordinate with the Permanent Human Rights Commission,
the Immigration and prison authorities and a donor country, which saw the
successful repatriation of over 200 Prohibited Immigrants, all of whom were
being held in the regular prisons in Lusaka. The year under review also saw
the intensification of the outreach programmes designed to empower the
citizenry with knowledge on their inalienable rights. |
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