With 26 offices in cities and towns in the country and at least two Paralegals in each of these offices, you will be forgiven for believing that the Legal Aid Board has the luxury of resources more so money. Whilst this may be far from the reality, what the Board lacks in money it makes up for in partnerships. Tapping into the resources of over 300 partners scattered around the country is a key to the successes of the Legal Aid Board.
The recently concluded Judicial Week is a shining example of this. With twenty lawyers (13 Legal Aid Counsel and 7 Contract Lawyers from the Sierra Leone Bar Association), the Board was able to represent 870 accused persons who appeared before 26 Judges presiding over courts in various locations around the country. This was by every indication a nightmare more so when the Chief Justice of the Republic of Sierra Leone had insisted that no accused person should go unpresented. This was a direct challenge throw at the Board.
Imagine how it feels like when you have secured the discharge of 234 accused persons in the Judicial Week (31 January – 4 February 2022) and many come to the office to say thank you and moreover ask for food, accommodation and fare to return to their homes in Freetown and other parts of the country.
In the circumstance, do you refer them to other organizations whose business it is to cater for such needs or go the extra mile to help? The Legal Aid Board has always gone for the latter. The Board continues to help its clients with food upon their discharge (in the case of those in Freetown), employment, medical and fare to return to their home communities.
In the Judicial Week, the Executive Director used her money to provide food to clients who came to the office upon their discharge and then contacted partners for help with other needs. The use of the phrase ‘her money’ is deliberate. Apart from the fact that the Board is awaiting money from Government since the start of the year, the provision of food, accommodation and fare to clients from the Board’s budget will be difficult if not impossible to explain and justify to auditors.
Since the Board has a partnership with the Western Area Council of Tribal Heads, it contacted the Fula Tribal Headman Alhaji Alimamy Mohamed Sajoh Jalloh to help provide accommodation to and also facilitate the return of a Guinean who wanted to go back to his home country. He obliged by sending the Public Relations Officer (PRO) Chernor Portal Bah to pick him up. The good news is our client is back home in Guinea safe and sound.
In case of those who do not have fare to return home, the lot fell on the President of the Motor Drivers and General Transport Workers Union Amadu Bah to assist. As usual, Bah was informed that clients will be coming so he can provide transportation to their respective homes. He obliged and assures he is on standby. The partnership between the two organizations which provides for the provision of free transportation to clients dates back to the first year of existence of the Board in 2015.
The client who hails from Makeni is a difficult one. He lost her speech and also became paralyzed at Pademba Road Correctional Center. He has no accommodation in Freetown. The Board provided him food and accommodation at the office until his return in Makeni.
Once this is finalized, the Board alerted the Makeni office to ensure he is reunited with his family. The same was done for other clients who returned to various parts of the country. This means the Board staff in the 26 offices should ensure they are reunited with their families and moreover have a smooth resettlement.
The foregoing underlines that partnership is key to the successes of the Board. The Board does not have the luxury of money but certainly has a luxury of resources in the form of partners who provide a limitless reservoir of resources to tap into and ensure the impossible becomes possible.
Let me hasten to say the partnership with these organizations is symbiotic. Some of the organizations: Motor Drivers and General Transport Workers Union, Kekeh Riders. Okada riders, Sierra Leone Labour Congress, Traders Council and the Sierra Leone Market Women Association make up the largest client base of the Legal Aid Board.
There is no gainsaying the Board has made life a lot easier for the heads of these organizations. For instance one of the biggest challenges Motor Drivers and General Transport Workers Union prior to the inception of the Board in 2015 was to provide legal services to hundreds of its members who commit traffic and other offences. This challenge has been mitigated to a very large extent since the Board provided free legal services to members of the Union who qualify for legal aid without any precondition.
Also, the Board has had matters referred to it even though they are not related to its clients or justice needs. For instance in March 2020, a child mother who hails from Pujehun, Elizabeth (not her real name) gave birth at the Princess Christian Maternity Hospital (PCMH) commonly called Cottage. With no home to return to in Freetown after her discharged, she had to stay in the hospital compound until the hospital authorities became aware of her plight and referred her to the Legal Aid Board.
The Board in turn referred her to Don Bosco as part of the partnership between the two. Elizabeth received accommodation and a resettlement packaged of two million two hundred thousand leones (USD 244) and then reunited with her father who travelled from Pujehun to witness the event.