Conversation cafés In the past, youth have been manipulated by political leaders to perpetrate violence, particularly in 2008. The conversation cafés brought together young people from different political and religious backgrounds to discuss issues affecting them, providing an important forum to build consensus around possible solutions to their problems. Among other things, they learned that, despite their political differences, they all faced the same problems. Issues arising at the cafés routinely included lack of employment, child sexual abuse, early marriages, corruption and poor services delivery, and these would then be taken up for discussion with the community leaders in the one-day community leaders’ workshops. Youths across the country were of the view that the rule of law in Zimbabwe was not being properly upheld as some powerful people were not held accountable for their corrupt activities. Evaluations demonstrated that the cafés indeed succeeded in providing opportunities for sharing ideas on legal issues and that they were very useful in improving communication at village level. It was also noted that the apolitical approach helped to foster community integration and cooperation and peaceful coexistence. Information, Education and Communication (IEC) Materials The LRF has continued to fill a niche by providing material on important legal issues in language that the layperson can understand. At present it has 10 posters, 8 leaflet sets and pamphlets on 21 topics. “I must admit that the thought of reading the entire Constitution is terrifying and time consuming. However, with this simplified version my life has been made easier. Thank you LRF.” 14 Legal Resources Foundation Annual Report 2015 “…I have realized that the Legal Resources Foundation Mutare has a lot of material that has impact on people’s lives. These range from Child Abuse, Domestic Violence and many others … to do with the Constitution. Being a parent myself and someone who likes to read I was quite impressed with the child rights and child abuse pamphlet as my area Farikai Village is right next to the mining area where a lot of human rights violations are taking place not only to the community in general … but more specifically to the girl children who are being married off as young as 12-13 years … this is an area where the law does not really come into place for these are the Forgotten Families of Chiadzwa … the people who should have been relocated but have not been … I have been able to help many families through sharing the information contained within the Legal Resources Pamphlets. Unfortunately I am only one person. I wish the organization can look for possible ways to come and see first-hand the violations taking place in this mining area where children are being married off due to … either religious beliefs or lack of knowledge of child rights as Human Rights ... this community’s level of education is very low and thanks to the LRF they can read about their rights in their own language. Thank you.” Headman K of Mutoko read the pamphlet on the Role of Traditional Leaders in 2014 and said he now knew the types of cases and issues that fall within his jurisdiction as well as being aware that a leader has to be careful not to infringe people’s rights in the name of exercising “traditional leaders’ rights”. He said that this particular pamphlet and