Justice

For most Malawians, the government Legal Aid Department presents the only opportunity for legal representation or even sound legal advice. It has always been chronically under-resourced and under-staffed. It is where Nick was working as a volunteer when he died.  Malawian lawyers train through a degree programme at the Chancellor College, which is part of the University of Malawi.  Our projects to improve access to justice in Malawi centre on the Legal Aid Department and the degree programme at Chancellor College.

Law Scholarship Programme

From 2005 to 2014, we provided scholarships for highly motivated law students which covered fees and maintenance for the full four years of the degree programme.  Our funding was conditional on recipients working at the Legal Aid Bureau (then Legal Aid Department) as interns in their university vacations and full-time for three years after graduation.  Over that time, we sponsored 5 students through their law degrees.

Since 2015 the government has restructured the provision of Legal Aid under a new Legal Aid Bureau. We are currently working with them to improve the contribution we can make to access to justice in Malawi.

We are currently working on a new scheme to improve the contribution we make to access to justice in Malawi through the Legal Aid Department.

Legal Aid Library

We have provided the Legal Aid Department offices in Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe,  with a well stocked law library. We provided the furniture and a computer. We sourced and shipped hundreds of relevant books and instructional DVDs, mostly donated by English law firms and colleges.

At the opening ceremony in August 2007, the library was unique in the country. The Malawian Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs described it as “a noble contribution” that “will go a long way towards making access to justice a meaningful concept to the majority of our citizens”. Bill Clinton praised our library in his 2007 book, ‘Giving’.

Since then, another organisation has donated a substantial library to the Malawi Law Society offices in Blantyre. We are very pleased that the legal profession in Malawi is now much better resourced than it was when we began our work.

Chancellor College Library

At a time when the law library at Chancellor College, where most Malawian lawyers train, was significantly under-stocked, we sourced and shipped multiple copies of books used on their degree programmes.  We are pleased that this situation has now been substantially improved by aid from elsewhere.  We continue to work with the Director of the Bar School to investigate ways in which we can contribute further in this field.