Page 27 - FOL2023

PUTTING THEORY
NULLAC

INTO

PRACTICE

The Faculty of Law at the National University of Lesotho houses an institution within it that is
called the Legal Aid Clinic (NULLAC). The purpose of the clinic is to provide students with relevant
practical experience in interacting with Law. Its services are provided pro bono to the public. I am part of
the Legal Aid clinic as a student in the Faculty of Law.
To achieve its mandate, NULLAC has partnered with Transformation Resource Centre (TRC) which
is a human rights organisation that provides a platform for robust advocacy on human rights related
issues.
In June 2021, TRC initiated a project that was aimed at identifying the human rights violations
made by the security institutions of Lesotho, scale of service delivery during the Covid-19 period and
provision of legal counselling to the identified victims. As a result of the collaboration between NULLAC
and TRC, law students were brought on board by TRC and I became part of the team that visited
Mohale’s hoek, Quthing and Qacha’s nek.
Let me hasten to acknowledge the immense experience I got from that project. One gets to put

the theory learned in class into legal advice possible. so emotional to the extent of
practice. The constitutional The range of legal shedding tears, thus this means
law that we learn in class, content which I shared with the that even emotionally, one has to
specifically the Bill of Rights, community from lessons learned be ready.
gets to be experienced in to understanding procedures one One grandmother who
action as one shares with and has to follow while instituting is a street vendor was so
educates the community. On cases before court, challenged emotional in narrating her
the other hand, members of and inspired me to work harder hardships experienced during
the community looked up to in my studies. The exercises on the Covid-19 lockdown. I had
us as their hope and believed advocacy and civic education to comfort her and note the
that we shall give them lasting need preparation not only of important information she gave.
solutions to their problems. a pen and paper but also of Soon I could remember myself Kabelo Justice Kelepa
This heightened my sense of mind as one will be interviewing seated in L181(Legal Methods
responsibility to ensure that I am people on serious issues which and Systems) class discussing
well prepared to give the best at times, makes the narrator how to interview a client and

Issue 2022 FOL Quarterly 29