- Program Civil Society
- Program Area Increasing Access to Justice
- Grant Amount $200,000
- Grant Period January 1, 2010–December 31, 2011
- Location Durban, South Africa
- Geographic Focus Eastern Cape, Province of, KwaZulu-Natal, Province of
About this grant
The Community Law and Rural Development Centre, established in 1989, provides access to justice services to poor communities in rural areas of KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. It has a network of 30 advice offices that provide free legal advice and other services to thousands of poor people, including access to social security, claiming unemployment insurance benefits, unfair dismissals in the workplace, and other labor matters. Past support assisted the centre to train and mentor paralegals within advice offices, who in turn assisted community members to access services from government and challenge decisions and institutions that violated their rights. This grant will support the grantee to continue to strengthen advice offices through the training of paralegals and governing boards and providing hands-on support to ensure that they provide relevant and effective services to communities in order to deepen democracy.