Legal Aid Forum (LAF), a local firm, that provides free legal aid services to vulnerable people, on Thursday, completed a four-day training workshop for more than 40 people from the Civil Society Platform.The workshop, which ended on Thursday, aimed at equipping local advocacy groups with the skills needed to help Rwandans receive the benefits they are entitled to. Speaking to The New Times, one of the trainees, Dancile Mukandoli from AVEGA-Agahozo, said that poor advocacy puts vulnerable people at a disadvantage. Avega-Agahozo is an association of widows of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi.“We have acquired more knowledge on how to assist people understand and protect their,” she asserted.Mukandoli explained that civil society activists often advocate for people’s rights without observing requisite procedure of advocacy. “I will also use the skills to train my fellow colleagues at AVEGA to help enhance our mission (advocacy for the rights of Genocide widows),” she added. Fabien Kanyangusho Karamira, the executive director of People’s Movement for Human Rights Education (MPEDH), said that the training enabled him to get the essential skills to influence government policies that don’t favour the population.Wellars Gasamagera presented a paper on the role of civil society in law-formulation process. He told this newspaper: “Becoming aware of the process involved will help them to intervene in the revision of the law before its enactment if it’s not favouring the public.”.
