JUSTICE INNOVATORS WORKSHOP RAPPOTEUR REPORT KENYA

BarefootLaw, supported by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation undertook a participatory action research project aimed at recognizing approaches and innovations in the provision of legal services in Uganda, Kenya and Malawi.

The objectives of this project include searching for and discovering new methods being used by individuals, communities, organizations and other stakeholders in making access to justice a reality.

BarefootLaw, held a workshop to present the most innovative grassroots innovators it discovered during its search. The event started off with a prayer and a round of introductions from all the people in attendance. This was followed by welcome remarks and an introduction of the project from Barefoot law that elaborated the work done by the organization and discussed the objectives of the project. Thereafter,hg a concise explanation of the justice innovator challenge, the participatory part of the project, where the public was asked to choose the innovators they felt were most compelling. There were six presenters for the award that passionately presented their innovations in access to justice to the community. These included, The Dispute Resolution Hub, Sairo Law Global, AJS Kajiado Cosmopolitan, Nyando Social Justice Centre, Muslim Education and Welfare Association (MEWA), Kisumu Mediation Centre.

There was then a presentation to explain the selection process for the winners of the awards and an award ceremony was conducted. The event with ended with closing remarks from a representative Nyando Social Justice Centre who gave a vote of thanks to the organizers for their support and effort in the workshop.

WELCOME REMARKS

MICHEAL KWIZERA. DIRECTOR OF STRATEGY AND PARTNERSHIPS, BAREFOOTLAW

Micheal appreciated everyone for their time and effort in making the event a success. He noted that BarefootLaw started out as a small organization but has scaled to heights including the event in question. He also emphasized that for this event, BarefootLaw was a convener. An entity whose mandate it was to bring different organizations together and share innovative ideas for access to justice for underserved communities. He also mentioned that world statistics show that 5.1 billion people have faced a justice issue. Moreso, that 58% of people are not confident in the judicial system (following a 2021 research study with BarefootLaw and Strathmore University). He also mentioned that BarefootLaw’s work is to get legal information into the hands of those that need it and the people armed with this information, will then be able to use it. He shared that BarefootLaw had 10 years of being a tech-enabled organisation under its belt and in those years, they have partnered with institutions in Kenya, Zambia and Malawi to make access to legal information a reality. He challenged the people in attendance to take a bottom up and grassroot approach to promoting access to justice. He said that this could be achieved through bringing together both top institutions and grassroot organisations together to collaborate and create innovation. He added that BarefootLaw has a target to reach fifty million people by 2030 and he noted that he is glad that this goal is in sight because of the partnerships being made. He concluded by noting that the idea is to dare to dream, to find justice for everyone.

COLLINS OTHIAMBO, DEPUTY SECRETARY, LAW SOCIETY KENYA REPRESENTATIVE ADDRESS

Mr. Collins noted that he has amassed great experience in the access to justice arena. Mentioning some of his positions such as co-founder of the Makerere University Legal Clinic, Co-founder of the Law Development Center Legal Aid Clinic, experience with the Refugee Law Project and access to justice for children. It is from this background that he encouraged all the people in attendance to consider a career in access to justice. He noted that it is a worthwhile and fulfilling pursuit that can take one to many places. In his conclusion, he noted that access to justice in Kenya is a creature of the Constitution, being enshrined in the Bill of Rights which offers people that are not advocates, an opportunity to participate in access to justice spaces.

KEYNOTE SPEECH BY MR. MORRIS KIMULI

Morris Kimuli, an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya with 15 years of experience and a member of the Steering Committee for the Alternative Justice System delivered the Keynote address.

He appreciated BarefootLaw for the invitation and noted that the name BarefootLaw was very fitting for an organization that serves underserved communities.

He went ahead to note that countries across the world have recognized the need and use for Alternative justice systems, by providing for it in their principal legislations. He noted that Kenya for example under Article 159 of her Constitution provides for alternative justice and reconciliation. He added that justice is also served upon the perpetrator not only to the one that has been wronged and because of this, there must be a broad definition of access to justice. Furthermore, he established that courts decide disputes but rarely resolve disputes. Clearly distinguishing between resolving and deciding matters, he remarked that whereas the court system decides cases, it does not resolve them, creating need for the alternative justice system to resolve cases even by reconciliation. He notably added that, “access to justice is not access to courts”. He applauded the AJS, stating that any engagement that begins with disputants fighting and ends in them shaking hands is an innovative method to achieve access to justice. He also made a call to the judiciary to promote and support access to justice through alternative justice methods since the Constitution of Kenya, 2010 creates an imperative for access to justice and not access to courts. He also highlighted that the according to the Constitution, access to justice will not be impeded by technicalities of procedure. After which he noted that mediation and other forms of alternative justice present an opportunity to navigate the stiffness and technical nature of the court system. He listed a few challenges to access to justice and the alternative justice system including what he termed inertia, which he defined as the resistance to change. He encouraged the various stakeholders to embrace AJS. He then noted that the Covid-19 pandemic left the world better in terms of access to justice since a lot of innovations came up to navigate the limitations of distance that came with the pandemic.

In his concluding remarks, he stated that justice is justice whichever way it is delivered if it meets the Constitutional standard. He also noted that people should never get to the point where justice loses its lustre. He concluded that by reminiscing about the 1950’s where people accessed justice through African courts that were manned by men and women not trained in the law. He further added that access to justice would still be achieved if lawyers lay down their tools. He therefore encouraged everyone to look beyond the formal court system in their interpretation of access to justice and focus more on innovating to reach underserved communities even through the alternative justice system.

2 . Presentations by the Justice Innovators.

(a) The Dispute Resolution Hub (DRH).

MS. Josephine Kairo, Case Development Officer at The Dispute Resolution Hub delivered the innovator presentation on behalf of the DRH. She highlighted that the organisation was launched in 2020 following the need to develop alternative dispute resolution and spearhead societal shift in how Kenyans handle disputes. She also mentioned that the organisation was a forerunner in using online mediation to resolve family disputes. With a vision of a conflict competent society and a mission to inspire and bring hope through dispute resolution, she explained that the team had grown to a staggering 120 dispute resolution practitioners specialized in mediation in only 3 years after inception.

She then pitched the reasons why the DRH should be chosen and mentioned that not only had they successfully handled 84 mediation matters and 10 arbitration disputes since inception and are result oriented, but they also believe in reducing the cost of justice by providing an affordable conflict resolution avenue while anticipating the needs of the client. She added that all this is possible by bringing together practitioners from different professions with expertise in various areas.

Problem

She noted that 33% of the national court backlog is made up of family-related cases most of which can be easily resolved out of court.

Solution

She explained that their organisation model offers subsidized fees for mediation cases and pro-bono mediation. Further, that they avail virtual, physical and blended mediation services. She also noted that through their partnerships with various organizations including Full Circle Centre, LLP, Nairobi; Arbitral Women;Strathmore Dispute Resolution Centre, Nairobi, The Win-Win Chamber Mediation, Mombasa, and Kisauni Social Justice Centre, they hold legal clinics and social outreaches.

Why their Solution Works

She further detailed reason why their model is preferable to litigation and noted that:

First, parties prefer it because it offers an impartial process.

Everyone is a winner since it preserves relationships through their conciliatory approach.

The model preserves one’s dignity as it is effective and confidential unlike litigation where court hearings can be made public.

It is cost effective and affordable since most of the work is done virtually hence reducing the cost of justice.

How their solution works

She went ahead to illustrate how the model works and explained that the organisation has a mediator on-call programmer that offers virtual pro-bono services and mediation across the country. She also highlighted that the organization offers arbitration services, conflict competency training and online dispute resolution training to the different individuals and communities they serve.

Impact Analysis

She intimated that one of the most profound cases they had handled was a family matter that had not been solved since the 1970’s but with mediation the matter had been successfully concluded within 6 months. She also reiterated that since their inception a total of 84 mediation cases and 10 arbitration cases.

In her concluding remarks she appreciated BarefootLaw for the opportunity to share their innovation with the world and added that she was glad that The Dispute Resolution Hub could contribute to the goal of reaching 50 million people by 2030 by inspiring hope through dispute resolution for access to justice.

(b) Sairo Law Global

Ms. Sian Rapei, the founder of Sairo Law Global shared a presentation on behalf of Sairo Law Global. She mentioned that the organization was established during the Covid-19 period. She stated that the vision of the organisation was to ensure that the masses are sufficiently educated on the legal provisions and the legal systems that affect them. She also shared the organisation’s mission which is to interact with communities, understand the information gap, understand culture and history, simplify the law and be available.

She further intimated that she started by assessing the gap through surveys with her friends. From these interactions she noted that many of her friends did not know any lawyers from whom they could access legal information. She further realised that this challenge was even more overwhelming in the villages. She explained that this realisation led to a needs assessment exercise in the villages where she noted a gap. She added that the Parliament spends billions of shillings on making laws, therefore there must be effort made in making these laws comprehensible to the people.

The Problem

She listed down challenges that the organization had observed and moved to address which included;

Expensive legal services

Unavailability of lawyers in rural areas

Ignorance of legal processes

Disconnect between the law and culture.

The Solution

She then explained that the organisation has worked over the years to solve the above challenges through various interventions including online legal education via trainings on YouTube, Community outreaches where they go to underserved communities to train them on different aspects of the law that affect them. For this one, she noted that among the Masai, there are still challenges with land acquisition and therefore they tailor make trainings to address this need. She added that they also conduct legal aid clinics and partnerships with community-based organizations, non-governmental organizations, religious groups and informal community outfits for the purpose of education.

Prospects

She emphasized that Sairo Global is on an upward trajectory with plans to expand with help from different funding sources. She noted that given the availability of resources, the organization intends to.

Acquire audio visual equipment for trainings and move away from the hand drawings and illustrations that are being used currently.

Create a structured calendar on public barazas.

Conduct more legal aid clinics in target areas.

Print more pamphlets and posters with legal information.

Create more video recordings for trainings and migrate into digital dissemination of information.

She concluded by applauding BarefootLaw for convening the event.

c) Alternative Justice System Cosmopolitan(AJSC)

Reverend. Doctor. Henry Omae, presented on behalf of the AJS Cosmopolitan.

In his introduction, he mentioned that the Chief Justice and the President of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Kenya launched the Alternative Justice System (AJS) model in Kajiado County to provide justice through an alternative traditional mechanism by elders aimed at reducing case backlog in the courts. He added that this move had its foundation in the provisions of the Constitution of Kenya on the use of alternative forms of justice as under Article 159.

He went ahead to explain that the purpose of this model is to ensure an accessible, efficient, cost-effective, and expeditious system of justice in Kenyan communities.

He explained that the panelists on the AJS Cosmopolitan Committee sit every Monday in Ngong County Government Boardroom excluding public holidays. They sit to hear and resolve legal issues ranging from family to land matters.

He noted that in the recent past, they had been assigned 10 land cases by the Land Commission and 8 of them had been fully resolved and the parties had been reconciled.

He went ahead to point out that the model works best because they leverage existing offices in the system to support their work. For example, he noted that they work together with the police, Chief Justice’s office, the Kenya Law Society among others.

He said that the model thrives on partnership and shared skills. As such, the cosmopolitan offers sensitization trainings and capacity building sessions with chiefs to skill them in mediation.

The WHY Factor

He then further explained why AJS is the best approach for access to justice in Kenya.

He elaborated that AJS is reduces backlog since matters are handled expeditiously by the committee.

He is added that the system is free of charge therefore people are not hindered from accessing justice by their financial situation.

He highlighted that since the system is highly informal, it is not complex for the communities being served as there is no bureaucracy.

Rev. Dr. Omae also noted expressed that the aim of the AJS system is reconciliation of the parties, he added that because of this, parties view it as a win-win solution.

Finally, he mentioned that the system is flexible as there are no court holidays or express working hours, neither is there a limitation on who can participate. In explaining this point, he shared that some members in the Cosmopolitan are not lawyers, they have a range of professionals from different fields who have been trained in mediation and offer their skills as an added advantage to the system.

Challenges

He mentioned that the biggest challenge the cosmopolitan faced was a lack of chambers in which to conduct their business and keep their documents. He appreciated the Government for giving them a place of operations that serves as their Chambers.

Secondly, he said that the individuals in the cosmopolitan are financially strained because there is no allocation of resources for effective operation. He noted key areas that require adequate resources which are currently not given by the Government, they include.

➤ Weekly hearings/ proceedings.

➤ Visits to disputed sites.

➤ Stationary and general documentation.

➤ Proper record keeping.

Considering the above challenges, he made a case for why the funding would be helpful to their work by noting that this support would be used to ensure proper record keeping, increase weekly hearings, aid panelists in site visits and provide stationary for the AJS panelists.

In his conclusion, he called upon all lawyers to partner with the Alternative Justice System Cosmopolitan and create quick dispensation of justice.

d) Nyando Social Justice Centre (NSJC)

Mrs. Caren Manga, the convener of Nyando Social Justice Centre started by affirming that justice is in their DNA as NSJC. She mentioned that the organization is a community-based organization, that was founded in 2008 by women survivors of gender-based violence in East Kano Wawidhi. The goal was access to justice for all with fairness while promoting human dignity. The organisation was made to tackle the areas of gender-based violence, human rights advocacy, women and property rights, sexual reproductive health rights, economic empowerment and leadership.

She noted that in 2018, the survivors were introduced to saving and loaning amongst themselves, dubbed “Table banking”, with the aim of providing comprehensive support, advocacy and innovative solutions for addressing human rights violations and promoting a society free from gender-based violence.

She highlighted that the reason they introduced table banking is because they noted that the recurring cases where of intimate partner violence as well as defilement, child abuse and wife inheritance which were mostly influenced by economic oppression.

She added that women were not reporting these matters to court because they were not financially capable. As such, a gender-based violence pathway was created in Nyando together with a strategy to empower women to be providers and reduce violence from men.

Testimony from Gender Based Violence Survivor

A woman champion, Jackline Atieno Ouma chairperson table banking in 2020 and child protection volunteer, shared her testimony with the audience and noted that most women in the grassroots are poor. She added that because of this, men mete violence against them as they see them as resource taking entities in relationships. She shared that when women ask for school fees and other necessities, they are met with violence.

It was intimated that Jackline’s has been used to impact 200 other survivors of GBV as she trains many on how to overcome the challenges they face in the community.

Mrs. Caren then mentioned that NSJC thrives in driving positive change though community outreach events, workshops and campaigns to challenge harmful gender stereotypes and promote a culture of respect and dignity while educating survivors about their rights.

She noted that the organisation collaborates with legal experts to provide pro bono legal representation for survivors ensuring their access to justice.

She also added that they created a safe space where survivors can walk in and report incidents of gender-based violence and they are first offered psycho-social support.

Achievements

She listed several achievements they have witnessed as an organisation including the table banking project. She mentioned that Table banking leverages the power of collective resources and has enabled survivors to save, borrow and invest in a collaborative manner. Adding that pooling of funds has allowed them to access larger amounts of capital than they might individually have, and it is seen that most of them start small business to sustain their lives avoiding over dependence on their husbands, reducing domestic violence.

She commented on one of the benefits of table banking, stating that it is a risk management measure since members also pool money for them to use on a rainy day.

She concluded by asserting that if they got more funding, it would be used to fund the table banking innovation.

e) Muslim Education Welfare Association (MEWA)

Ms. Diana Kitsao Salama, a paralegal at MEWA presented on the organisation’s behalf. She started by noting that the organisation was established in 2001 with the objective to reduce harm as result of drug and substance use by promoting access to health and social justice.

She added that the areas that the organisation serves include Mombasa County, Kilifi North and South sub-counties as well as Lamu county.

Activities

She shared that several activities are undertaken by the organisation in the journey to social justice. She listed some of these as; Know Your Rights sessions, Legal Aid clinics and legal assistance, advocacy with law enforcement officers, Court user committee meetings, prison visits and training and advocacy with judicial officers.

She added that other complementary interventions are carried out to support the communities they serve. These interventions include Alternative Dispute Resolution for cases, violence redress, following up on police station releases, assistance to acquire civil documents for example, National Identification cards and birth certificates, community sensitization, linkages to social welfare department, socioeconomic empowerment as well as visits to schools for sensitization.

She reiterated the provisions of the Constitution on the right to access to justice and further stated that MEWA ensures this right is enjoyed by bridging access to legal information, advice and legal representation for persons who use injecting drugs (PWUIDS).

Achievements and Milestones

She listed several achievements and milestones that they have achieved since 2021 which include.

Sensitization of communities on rights leading to increased reporting of violations and self-referrals by PWUIDs to MEWA and police station.

Establishing rapport with prisons, probation and police stations which has made MEWA a referral centre of choice for aftercare, rehabilitation and treatment.

Resumed prison visits at Kilifi Bofa prison and Hindi prison Lamu.

Assisted 429 PWUIDs to acquire National IDs and 103 National Health Insurance Fund registrations. She elaborated that the latter allows PWUIDs enjoy the universal health care package at all accredited facilities.

Conducted 4 successful mediations, 568 police stations releases, 19 cases profiled and 13 people given legal aid assistance.

She also expressed some challenges they have faced in the execution of their duties including police officers not being trained on harm reduction, some community members feel harm reduction encourages drug use and paralegal activities consume fares and airtime.

She concluded by thanking BarefootLaw for the opportunity showcase their work and she encouraged the audience to reach out for professional collaborations and partnerships.

f) Kisumu Mediation Centre

Mr. Samson Ouma, the team lead at KMC eased into his presentation by stating that the goal at KMC was a heart-handshake at the end of the mediation by all parties concerned.

He explained that KMC is a non-profit making organization with a composition of over 98 accredited and non-accredited mediators. He added that these mediators are comprised of AJS practitioners, private and court annexed mediators spread across the country but mostly concentrated in Kisumu.

The Problem

Mr. Ouma stated that 60% of the women the centre serves have intimated that they did not know what mediation was until they interacted with KMC. Further, he noted that most of the cases handled are land matters, family cases and labour disputes all being contentious. He added that a survey conducted by the centre found that 85% of the people that interact with the court system face language barrier challenges with the language of court. As a result, they do not understand the proceedings and usually end up displeased by the system.

He also said another issue is that the court system is very costly for many low income earners to the extent that they often do not even have bus fare to return home after court.

Interventions by Kisumu Mediation Centre.

He went ahead to delve into the various interventions by KMC to mitigate the problem above.

He shared that they have a strategically stationed tent next to the courthouse, where people can find mediation services.

Addressing the litigants about alternative dispute resolution during morning briefs.

Local radio and TV show appearances in the local languages so that the people understand what they are being taught.

He also stated that the secretariat connects people with mediators in their locality in order to create lasting partnerships and ease work.

Challenges

He mentioned a couple of challenges, including resistance of ADR methods by the youth, expensive data prices and low internet connectivity to facilitate online mediations, low funds to facilitate work and mediation awareness is still low.

Achievements

He went on to share the achievements they have made which included;

8 widows got recovered their land and acquired land titles after land disputes with their in-laws.

1 woman that had been separated with her husband for 13 years, reconciled with her family after mediation.

Virtual mediation sessions are conducted across different areas in Kisumu.

At least 2 mediators in all the 6 sub-counties in Kisumu County are active.

Prospects

Mr. Ouma stated that the organization has plans to expand and grow in reach with their activities. He mentioned that they planned to establish 12 mediation tents at courts in Kisumu County in one year, to help dispense alternative justice.

He added that they intended to have more weekly radio and television mediation talk programs to create awareness about Alternative Dispute Resolution.

He then said that they plan to build a database of justice players, that includes their locality and expertise in order to ease approachability.

He intimated that they plan to share more success stories on social media for information sharing and learning.

Lastly, he said that the organization plans to take mediation to prisons in the areas of Kodiaga and Kibos.

Conclusion

In his conclusion, he thanked the partner organisations that KMC works with, including The Judiciary (Kisumu Law Courts), Court users, Committee CSO Network, FIDA Kenya, Transparency international, Maendeleo ya wanawake among others. He ended by calling upon all partners and potential partners to support their work in promoting access to justice through alternative justice methods.

3. Panel Discussion

This session was moderated by Mrs. Ruth Kigozi from BarefootLaw, who invited the presenters for a panel discussion to answer questions that would give light to their journey of growth as innovators.

The panelists were asked to share how they have managed to carry on their activities, given the challenges in resources. They were tasked to explain their sustainability strategies and they replied in as follows:

Mrs. Manga from Nyando Social Justice Center said that they have engaged the community and inspired them to support the projects like table banking since they benefit from them.

Rev. Dr. Omae answered that whereas resources are a big challenge, lobbying is how they have managed to sustain their work. He pointed out that they lobbied government to give them chambers to function in and were successful.

Ms. Kairu from The Dispute Resolution Hub opined that in order to do the work, they have interested the community to understand the importance of mediation and they will support the work.

Mr. Ouma from Kisumu Mediation Centre replied by asserting that since the mediators in the organisation are based in their home areas, it is cost effective. Furthermore, he noted that it creates trust among the people being served to talk to one of their own, so the mediation is well received.

The next question posed to Nyando Social Justice Centre was on the reception of the community towards their work. She responded by stating that when they had just started out, there was a lot of resistance from the community, however, with time as survivors came for documentation and found a safe space to thrive, the community was more welcoming of their work.

Advocate Mati then asked Sairo Law Global what their experience and challenges. She was also asked to highlight her experience serving the unique demographic of the masai.

Ms. Rapei noted that the biggest challenge was limited resources. She expressed concern over the bad roads leading to the villages they serve and the lack of audio-visual equipment for their activities. Regarding the Masai people in Kajaido, one of the communities they serve, she noted that the community deals with unique issues such as female genital mutilation, defilement as a result of early marriages supported by culture. She added that they are tackling these issues through education since most of them need to unlearn cultural practices that are unconstitutional. She noted that this process required time and patience.

Ms. Diana from Mewa was tasked to share her experience working in a rehabilitation centre with a paralegal department that goes beyond solving health issues to also dispensing justice for people dealing with drug abuse.

In response, she noted that they have seen the lives of people change with the interventions by the organisation. She noted that the interventions were practical and dealt with actual issues that these people face such as the need for National ID’s and Health Insurance. She added that these methods are causing real change and access to justice for the people.

4. Questions and Comments

An attendee posed a question to Ms.Rapei from Sairo Law Global, and she asked how the organization is bridging the gap between culture and the law.

Ms. Rapei replied by mentioning that they have conversations with the people and not just trainings. She added that they also carry out needs assessment surveys and seek for a mixed demographic audience of both men and women to impact them all. She concluded by stating that conversational change that causes transformation is the goal, she emphasized the need not to present the law as a bully but rather to help them understand how and why the law differs from their culture.

Rev. Dr. Henry was asked if it is plausible to conduct trainings of chiefs and people in leadership instead of focusing only on the community members.

He opined that when you start any strategy with onboarding the higher ups, the work is made easy. He added that it is important to keep peace with the leaders so that they agree and support with the work being done.

An attendee then asked Mrs. Manga from Nyando, how in the long term, the organisation sees table banking facilitating access to justice.

She responded that champions are being trained on issues of human rights for them to teach and empower others. Further, she said that table banking is a tool for economic empowerment which in turn mitigates economic violence.

Advocate Morris was asked in his capacity as a member of the AJS National Steering Committee, about how sustainable AJS is.

He noted that they are only promoting, preserving and transforming what is existing, while only the nuances change. He added that there must be inclusion of all parties. He also pointed out that the system is self-sustaining relying heavily on existing structures and organisations to facilitate its activities. He concluded that the rule of thumb is to work with what is available so that results are delivered that will attract others to support the system.

Methodology

Ruth Kigozi, lead researcher for the MOTT research project explained the way in which the award winners were selected. She mentioned that the method used was crowdsourcing, and a crowdsourcing contest was conducted in May-June 2022.

The team defined the innovation challenge, designed communication and promotion strategies for the contest and published it.

The challenge was then advertised on all BarefootLaw media platforms and partner websites as well as Hakii Fm.

At the end of the advert period, a total of 50 submissions were received from 4 counties in Kenya. 7 submissions were from Kajiado, 19 from Kisumu, 7 from Kitui and 16 from Mombasa.

She further explained that scoring was done by a team of 5 and out of the 50 applications, 15 with the highest score were selected and broadcast for voting via Twitter, Facebook and SMS from 24^th July to 7^th August 2023.

She noted that the team looked out for innovative, affordable, effective, scalable and sustainable ideas for the evaluation process.

Presentation of awards

The awards ceremony was presided over by representatives from BarefootLaw and Kenya Law Society.

The 3 award winners were:

Kisumu Mediation Centre
Dispute Resolution Hub
Nyando Social Justice Centre

The winners were awarded USD.1000 to support their organizations.

Closing Remarks

The awardees from Nyando Social Justice Centre moved a vote of thanks to BarefootLaw for the platform to recognize their work. In tears, she recounted how the centre had been burnt down during political riots in the county and this award presented an opportunity for them to start over and impact more people in the communities.