Via Harvard Law Today

A clinical class supports local organizations’ efforts to improve social welfare

City street in Nima, Accra, Ghana, 2001.

Credit: Courtesy of The Ghana Project Clinic
City street in Nima, Accra, Ghana, 2001.

In Nima, a large community in the center of Accra, Ghana, water flows through the plumbing system of a small human rights advocacy office for only a few hours each day. Professor Lucie White and some of the first students in Making Rights Real: the Ghana Project learned this the hard way. One morning they arrived at the Legal Resources Centre to find the office flooded and all of the clients’ files drenched. The previous day, a student had inadvertently left the spigot open after finding it dry. Everyone then worked together to lay each piece of paper outside in the courtyard to dry in the African sun.

That could have spelled the end of the Ghana Project. Instead, it marked the beginning of a true partnership to work for underserved Ghanaians. Sustained through mutual trust, it has now enabled more than 200 HLS students to gain first-hand experience working for economic rights, development, and social justice.

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Filed in: Clinical Spotlight

Tags: Making Rights Real: The Ghana Project Clinic

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