VOLUNTARY WORK

HRDI ensures that students remain grounded by encouraging law clinics to undertake practical work to improve the situation in disadvantaged communities, by assisting with manual tasks such as painting, gardening and repairs.  It does this through example, with students and HRDI staff doing such work for one day every week during training.
 
This aspect of our programme has come to define HRDI and gives expression to the idea that “human rights is not about what we write or say, but about what we do”.  Hard manual work teaches us to truly respect, understand and empathise with those that perform such work every day and for a living.  We have assisted with the development of a vegetable garden in a school, enabling the school to enjoy fresh vegetables or raise money, and have also assisted a family of nine children (including a HIV positive, disabled young woman) to improve their living space by adding windows, a door and a toilet,  fixing the fence and painting the entire house.

This work is supervised by our maintenance person, who takes his supervision of the students very seriously, and allows no slacking or laziness, which ensures that our tasks are completed on time. Interestingly many students have decided to return to their home countries and include an aspect of this kind of work in their institutions.