Since 1997 the outreach program has formed the core of the Centre’s activities. There are presently fifteen community support centres in the interior of KwaZulu-Natal (see map opposite), employing twenty local women trained in paralegal skills, each serving areas of fifty square kilometres or more.

Unlike other advice offices in the province, the centres are based at police stations and magistrate courts. This is in order to offer convenient access for clients and to be able to work easily with criminal justice services – for example by helping clients to report a crime, assisting with counselling and taking statements, and applying for court orders and affidavits. Since 1997 coordinators have attended to approximately 100,000 cases.

Paralegal coordinators help rural communities, especially women and children, to use state services and private organisations to gain access to their legal rights and improve their lives. They enable disadvantaged individuals, who otherwise lack the knowledge or means, to learn about and use the law to solve their problems.

Find out more about the outreach staff and the areas they serve, including interviews with them about the challenges they face:

   Zodwa Maramane         Zolta Buthelezi           Zandile Zikode        Bazamile Magubane              Sindi Mjoli                    Dudu Basi  

        Impendle                     Mpumalanga                    Ixopo                             Ixopo                               Himeville                      Mooi River

  Zandile Khanyile           Theresa Thusi               Sonto Nene             Patricia Maphanga        Nombuso Ngcobo      Nokuthula Mchunu

   New Hanover                  Plessislaer                    Madadeni                        Bulwer                         Ekuvukeni                         Bulwer

    Lucky Mkhize                 Thabisile Miya             Tshengisile Dlamini      Sibongile Mchunu    Sibongile Masondo    Phumelele Mathonsi

     Mpophomeni                 New Hanover                    Bergville                        Glencoe                         Osizweni                       Estcourt

     Fisani Ngcobo                 Khanyi Singh    

        Plessislaer                      Plessislaer

Rural communities face several obstacles when accessing the legal system, such as ignorance of their rights and a fear of secondary traumas when reporting crimes: for example, women fear having to report a crime to a man and being ignored and treated insensitively by police. There are cultural and historical constraints such as fear of the police and pressure to endure domestic violence without complaint, as well as a lack of money and transport with which to access services. The outreach program seeks to remove these barriers and to form a bridge between clients and their rights.

The chart below shows the types of cases that clients approached the support centres with in 2011: