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the children’s examination results were eventually
released and the Registrar General’s office put in
place a mechanism to ensure that affected children
would be assisted in obtaining birth certificates at
the district offices.
ZLHR has maintained its interactions with
communities in this area, and is currently
working on ensuring that hundreds of families
are not subject to forced evictions and internal
displacement as private developers enter the area
to work on commerical projects.
ZLHR member Tanaka Muganyi offering legal advice
to a client at one of ZLHR’s mobile legal clinics
ZLHR Annual Report 2014
Mobile Legal Clinic Showcase: Siakobvu, Mashonaland West
The Siakobvu area is located in Mashonaland West. The target community is found in the Nyami
Nyami District. This area is severly underdeveloped, with poor road networks, limited infrastucture
and perennial droughts. Siakobvu lies in ecological regions 4 and 5 (suitable for ranching and wildlife
sanctuaries and not subsistence farming), with low rainfall. Hunger and the threat of starvation
perpetually haunt the villagers. This situation has also resulted in increased levels of dependency of
the people on those with political ambitions.
Through its Mobile Legal Clinic initiative, lawyers provided human rights information to the
community, particularly focussing on their fundamental rights guaranteed in the Constitution.
Through testimonies and legal consultations, ZLHR was able to take up a number of public interest
cases. These included litigation on behalf of children who had their results withheld by school
authorities after the Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM) had failed to pay their school fees;
children who had failed to obtain birth certificates because of the rigid requirements demanded by
the Registrar General’s office, amongst others. As a result of the intervention by ZLHR lawyers,
Select target paragraph3
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