In most of the our communities, women and children have been considered the groups after men. This results into them being denied their right to have their voices or opinions considered. Legal assistance to women have been much helpful to them, though the most prevailing challenge has been how to reach women especially in remote areas.
However, the use of paralegals has been fruitful as they play a great role by assisting poor majority in mostly in rural areas where lawyers do not want to go and even the services offered by lawyers most rural women cannot afford. The use of paralegals therefore is an important approach to help marginalized population.
The challenge with the use of paralegals is that they are not legally recognized in most countries including Tanzania. Also they are not getting any support to perform their duties. Only NGOs have been training them and sometimes leaving them without further support. This makes it difficult for paralegals to perform, hence trained paralegals deciding to spend their time on other economic issues.
Also because they do not get support, it is difficult to ask them submit reports on what they have been doing. They will only do so to organizations that support them.
The Namati Learning Exchange in Bangladesh however, was useful as it helped the participants to learn different approaches and challenges in their respective countries; and discussed the possible solutions.
Personally, i learned a lot during the program and I believe it will help much in improving how to deal and help paralegals.
