- Program Civil Society
- Program Area Increasing Access to Justice
- Grant Amount $20,000
- Grant Period January 1, 2015–December 31, 2016
- Location West Porgies, South Africa
- Geographic Focus South Africa
About this grant
The Rural Legal Trust was established in 2000 to provide legal services to farmworkers, farmdwellers, and the rural poor in South Africa whose rights were being violated. It works in the Free State, Mpumalanga, North West, and Northern Cape provinces. Past support assisted the grantee to train and mentor community-based paralegals and farmworker representatives on various aspects of the law and on topics related to the provision of basic services to poor people. The topics covered included mediation, opening files for clients, and procedures to follow when dealing with the eviction of people from farms. This grant increase will assist the grantee to continue to train, mentor, and support paralegals in community advice offices and farmworker representatives that assist farming communities when their rights are violated. It will also enhance a Web-based case management system to log cases from farmworkers and other clients that will allow for a more effective resolution of cases. This grant increase has been made possible by a partnership with Atlantic Philanthropies in support of the community advice office sector.