Website Launch

The project website was launched on 10 April 2007:

www.advocaciapopular.org

Parnaiba • Friday • 01 September 2006

The 7 community meetings in Alto de Santa Maria, Santana, Bom Conselho, Santa Isabel, São Vicente, Mendonça Clark and Sao Jose have now been completed. It was a really interesting opportunity to discover more about the human rights situations in each of these communities. The groups who attended the meetings were receptive towards the project and contributed towards a series of productive encounters. Our team over the two weeks comprised: Marcos, Keila, Geany, Paulo, Marcela, Neia, Rodger and Niall



Pictured (L-R): Rodger, Keila, Marcela, Paulo

Logo + Website

We commissioned a logo for the project and the website should be ready by the end of September.

Meeting in Alto de Santa Maria • 22 August 2006

The team was warmly received in the community. Approximately 40 people attended. Some of the principal problems identified were:

• Basic access to services
Access to health, sanitation, and the piped water and energy networks is precarious.

• Lack of Personal Documents
Many people don’t have documents and consequently face exclusion from government programmes, social security, formal employment, education, etc.

• Title to Property
Many residents have no formal title documents for their properties.

• Youth Violence
This was raised as a very serious problem. It can in part be addressed by availing of the provisions of ECA (Child and Adolescent Statute) and demanding a greater role for the elected Conselheiros Tutelares (Youth Councilors)

PRA

Phase 1 is underway - Participative Rapid Appraisal as they say. We are carrying out 7 meetings in different communities over the next 10 days to:

1. promote the programme;
2. select the target communities and;
3. identify the needs of the various communities;
4. define the course modules.

The communities selected for the needs appraisal process were Alto de Santa Maria, Santana, Bom Conselho, Santa Isabel, São Vicente, Mendonça Clark and Sabeazal.

Arrival

I arrived in Parnaiba 10 days ago. Hot and dusty at dawn in the bus station. Quite a few of the roads have been asphalted since my last visit. The town is in the midst of electoral fever - the carros de som are blaring out the jingles of the various candidates. The countdown is on for October, but it looks like Wellington Dias may get re-elected as Governon on the 1st round. The elections will be quite a distraction to contend with as we go about promoting the programme.

Appointment of Project Coordinator

The interviews for Project Coordinator took place in Teresina on Friday 10 August. 11 candidates applied and six were selected for interview. Jucimara, a lawyer from Mato Grosso do Sul was selected as coordinator. She is 35 years old and she will arrive in Parnaiba and assume the role of coordinator on 01 September 2006.

About Grasroots Lawyers

Thursday • 24 august 2006 • Parnaiba



CÁRITAS BRASILEIRA



The GRASSROOTS LAWYERS pilot project is a strategy for tackling the problem of access to justice for the marginalized in the Parnaiba region, Piauí in the North-East of Brazil. It seeks to capacitate community leaders on legal rights issues and equip them with the skills to

• mobilise communities around socio-economic, land, labour and related rights;
• deliver basic legal services which don't require a qualified lawyer.
  

Piauí is one of Brazil’s most economically underdeveloped states with 57% of families living on a monthly income of R$270 (US$100) per month, and the ten poorest percent of the state’s population surviving on R$13.19 (US$5) per month per person. The index of illiteracy is also disturbingly high at 28%, with figures for functional illiteracy upwards of 55% according to 2000 statistics.

A significant aggravating source of vulnerability for already socio-economically marginalized sectors of society in Piauí, northeast Brazil is the lack of access to basic legal advice. Many people are unaware of their basic rights – constitutional or legislative – or where they are, do not realise that it is not necessary to have a lawyer to initiate a wide range of proceedings, such as many labour law actions, habeas corpus applications against illegal arrest, and others. Formal judicial resolution of disputes is prohibitively expensive, and remains the preserve of the wealthy. Moreover many lay people occupy positions on councils, which require a basic familiarity with health legislation, or the children’s statute (ECA) to properly exercise their functions.

The project hopes to address this aspect of social exclusion by providing a “grassroot lawyer” course for lay people from basic communities in and around Parnaiba, which will train them in basic legal issues across a range of themes. The goal is to equip them with the skills to act as a first point of reference for legal advice within their communities and to deliver basic services, which don’t require a qualified lawyer. In tandem with this, it is sought to make viable, alternative, consensual, mediation mechanisms to deal inexpensively and efficiently with small disputes. It is hoped through these processes, combined with training on public expenditure monitoring, to trigger greater civil society awareness in demanding transparency and legal accountability of public institutions in the region.