by AMY FALLON
Ugandan lawyer Gerald Abila is the founder of the award-winning Barefoot Law, a tech-savvy non-profit that uses Facebook, Skype, Twitter, SMS, radio and television partnerships to improve access to justice and the law. PHOTO/Amy Fallon/IPS
When Gerald Abila received an iPhone as a gift almost two years ago, the Ugandan law student didn’t just use it to text his friends. He used it to create what would eventually become the first entity of its kind in East Africa — a tech savvy, multi-award winning, organisation that uses Facebook, Twitter, SMSes, and radio and television partnerships to provide free legal advice and consultations.
“I’d be in class but at the same time I was Tweeting and on Facebook,” the 31-year-old lawyer tells IPS. “So many legal questions would come up so I thought let me start a Facebook group. It was just me giving free advice.”
Abila set up the Facebook group back in 2012 before he graduated from Kampala International University with his law degree. What began as a Facebook group with just 100 members, whom Abila helped every Saturday from 3 to 4pm, has now grown into Barefoot Law, a not-for-profit organisation with over 16,000 online followers and an Android app.
“I moved around the country and after that I decided to turn this into an organisation because access to legal services is a nightmare,” Abila, Barefoot Law’s founder and managing director, says.
“It’s like the health sector – you only go to a doctor when you start feeling sick. You only go to a lawyer when there’s an issue you go to court over.”
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