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The Southern Province Regional Office located at Maxwell Kobe Park, Off Tikonko Road, Bo commenced operations in August 2003.

The office is a two-storey building located in the heart of the city. The building contains an office space for the legal practitioner and head of office, an office for the secretary and office assistant.

Bo is the second largest city with a growing population of over half a million people. The office is serving the entire southern province comprising of Moyamba, Pujehun, Jerehun and Bonthe. But the main constraint is the lack of vehicles to transport the lawyer and other staff members from one place to the other, which impedes the smooth running of the work in the area.

Funds for the establishment of this office and its staffing and running cost from 2003 to December 2005 was provided by the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA), which funded the Centre's Prisoners Rights Project. This Project deals with the provision of legal advice representation for detainees and prisoners throughout Sierra Leone.

Most of the Centre's clients live in remote areas like Rotifunk, Bumpe, Tikonko, Bonthe, Mossenessie Junction and Serabu. The roads are terrible and it is extremely difficult to access clients and victims of human rights abuses within these areas, without any form of transportation.

The majority of cases referred to this office are assault, child support, sexual offer gender related cases.

This office notwithstanding the support from OSIWA is in dire need of an office vehicle, motorbike to enable its staff members to move around the Southern Province and provide legal advice and representation to indigent individuals in need of the services of the Centre.

Major activities undertaken by the Southern Province Regional Office during the past five years

The Prisoners Rights Project
The Southern Province tremendously benefited from The Centre's Prisoners' Rights Project. A number of detainees and Prisoners who cannot afford to pay for the services of Lawyers were given free legal services by the Centre.

The Legal Awareness Project
The Southern Province also benefited from the Legal Education Project which was a joint venture between LAWCLA and the Canadian Lawyers Association for International Human Rights to educate litigants especially accused persons and the general public about their rights in Court.

The Paralegal Training Program
In February 2004 the Centre trained paralegals in the Bo Office to enable them to give basic legal advice or legal first aid to clients. Community Based Organisation (CBO's), Paramount Chiefs, Courts Clerks and Human Rights Monitors from Mattru Jong, Bonthe, Moyambaand Pujehun benefited from this training. Those trained are now passing on knowledge to their townsmen who are not well grounded in the law.

The Juvenile Justice Project
Between August 2004 and July 2005 this Office implemented a countrywide Juvenile Justice Project entitled, "Legal Protection of Juveniles and the Promotion of Juvenile Justice in Sierra Leone". This Project, kindly funded by an anonymous Foundation, consisted of the following activities:

• An assessment of the law and practice relating to the treatment of juvenile offenders in Sierra Leone through research, data collection and on the spot checks.
• A consultative workshop with local experts and groups dealing with juveniles in Sierra Leone in order to ascertain the nature of the problems at hand and the needs of juveniles in the country.
• Legal advice and representation of juvenile offenders throughout Sierra Leone through the Centre's Head Office and the three Regional Offices in Makeni, Bo and Kenema.
• Workshops and consultations with law enforcement officials and social workers dealing with juvenile offenders, with the aim of ensuring that the law (and in particular the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989)) is applied sensitively in relation to the treatment of juvenile suspects.