WOMEN’S DEPARTMENT TO HOST FREE LEGAL CLINIC

November 24, 2009

A free legal clinic will be held tomorrow at Chateau Caribbean as a part of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence 2009. The Legal clinic, organized by the Women’s Department, will allow many men and women who otherwise would not have been able to afford it, access to justice. Icilda Humes is the Director at the Women’s Department.

Icilda Humes; Director, Women’s Department

"It is something that Chief Magistrate has been asking us to bring back for some time now and we decided to give it a try this. We were very grateful that so many local attorneys opted to volunteer their time to give free legal advice to men and women tomorrow. We are going to be looking at gender based violence and family issues. Anyone who ordinarily could not afford to access legal advice, we are including women and men. You are free to come to Chateau Caribbean tomorrow. It is on a first come first serve basis. We are not doing any preregistration; you can just need to show up."

The 16 day of activism is an international campaign sponsored by the global centre for Women’s Global Leadership and will be held from November 25 to December 10. According to Humes tomorrow’s activity is one of the ways the Women’s Department is strengthening local work around violence against women.

Icilda Humes; Director, Women’s Department

"The lawyers will be giving free advice in areas such as divorce, sexual harassment, domestic violence, division of property, legal separation, child custody and other issues that pertain to gender based violence and family issues. We want to encourage people to take full advantage of that and we are really grateful to Magali Marin, Dolores Balderamos-Garcia, Samira Musa-Pott, Tania Moody, Melissa Mahler, Audrey Matura-Shepherd, Darlene Vernon, Kevin Authors, Lisa Shoman, Ashani Martin and Anthony Sylvester for volunteering their time. We know that lawyers are busy people and a lot of times they get a bad rap but we can honestly say that these set of lawyers have really been very generous with their time; they all accepted to be a part of this initiative. Some of them even heard about the initiative and came a volunteered their time so we are especially grateful to those attorneys."

Humes says men and other stakeholders are invited to join in the activities as we all have a part to play in putting a stop to gender based violence.

Icilda Humes; Director, Women’s Department

"On Friday we have the annual Sixteen Days of Activism Opening Ceremonies and March that takes place at three o'clock at the Yabra Basketball Court. We want to encourage women, men, and children. Come out as families, come out as community groups, come out as business places and come out as NGO's. We want people to come out and be a part of that event. We will as usual have sixteen days of activism T-shirts available for those persons who come to the march so if you come to be a part of the march you can access a free shirt but that is also on a first come, first serve basis. We also have this year's special T-shirt for men and that T-shirt is confusing on shared responsibility between women and men as it relates to child rearing and supporting your family and supporting your wife. We especially want to encourage men to come out and be a part of this initiative."

The free legal clinic will run from nine in the morning to five in the evening. For more information the Women’s Department can be contacted at telephone number 227-7397 or 227-3888.

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