The Global Brigades Panama team has now been working in the region of Eastern Panama for a year and a half, which means that more research has been done to better inform our programming decisions and significant improvements have been made to every program.
Specifically the Law Brigades Program is excited to announce we have changed the name of Law Brigades to Human Rights Brigades. We believe this change will better reflect the program mission to provide marginalized communities access to justice through legal counsel and education. This decision opens the door to a wider range of students with more diverse education backgrounds and interests, who will thereby bring even more to each brigade.
About Human Rights Brigades: The Human Rights program aims to empower rural communities of Panama Este and the Darien Province of Panama to overcome obstacles that impede access to justice through legal counsel and educational workshops. By mobilizing student volunteers to connect with these communities on a family-by-family basis, the team intends to develop a sustainable legal support system in the region to decrease the number of unresolved legal cases over time. Legal action in securing child support for a single mother and other domestic cases addressed in Human Rights Brigades will contribute to the economic stability of numerous families.
Latest Update from the Field: Human Rights is busy making progress and team members have upcoming community visits to the communities of Platanilla and Zapallal to prepare for our early spring brigades. At this time we will find out the specific cases we are going to be working on. The team is excited to sit down with the communities and prepare them for the brigades, and also prepare the students to work closely with the families. Additionally, we have had a lot of growing interest from European universities and the name change from Law to Human Rights has proved to attract a more diverse group of students.
More information: For more information about Human Rights Brigades, click here to visit the program page.
