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The
Foundation other than just providing access to justice embarked on a campaign
through its centres to empower the communities with basic knowledge of their
legal rights in a bid to enable people to assert their human rights. This
approach is rooted in the belief that the Foundation would contribute to the
enhancement of a human rights by highlighting the rights entrenched in the
constitution.
The
Foundation was invited to give legal talks at various seminars and workshops
hosted by other organisations. The outreach programmes were prominent in
remote rural areas in the provinces. The workshops were mostly held in
schools and churches with the targeted groups being villagers in the case of
rural settings.
The
Foundation received broad coverage from the media particularly the radio, on
most of the events embarked on during the year notably the Legal Bus Project
and launching of advice centres. A weekly radio broadcast "the Law and
You" on Radio Yatsani, is aired every Tuesday discussing various laws
obtaining in Zambia. Similarly local radio stations in the provinces such as
Radio Maria in Chipata and Radio Icengelo in Kitwe do carry out various
programmes discussing the law with LRF staff stationed in these provinces.
The most discussed topics included the Law of Succession, Family Law, Labour
Law, Land Law and Police Powers and Rights of Suspects.
A
community radio station in Lusaka, Radio Phoenix, gives appreciable coverage
of the Foundation's activities, especially their news bulletin "what the
papers say" which publicises most of the news stories from the LRF
newsletter. A live broadcast was equally carried out at ZNBC to talk about
the Foundation and its work.
Legal
Bus Project
 A
unique project undertaken by LRF towards the end of the year was the Legal
Bus Project in line with its work and focus. The Legal Bus Project was aimed
at reaching out to the travelling public and was launched during the month of
October. This was the first ever programme of such nature to be conducted in
Zambia, conceived after a need identified from the travelling public to know
more about the LRF. The whole concept was to bring the law to the travelling
public, giving them an opportunity to come to understand basic civic rights
and fundamental legal concepts in general. It was an effective way of
reaching out and a means of publicising the organisation to the citizenry to
become aware of the services offered by the Foundation thereby affording even
the poorest a chance to have access to justice.
The
programme was developed by selecting topics of the law, which were
pre-recorded on audiotape and punctuated by jingles blended with messages
about the Foundation's mission, vision and location of the legal advice
centres in the country. The audiotapes were played on buses whose proprietors
had given permission to the Foundation to use their facilities on both local
and long distance routes during the one week that the project was conducted
from 15-20 October. Staff were routed on local and distant trips to give
advice to members of the public who had questions on the topics broadcast and
other related legal issues.
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