Serwaah & Erin Volunteer in Dhaka!
Donation protected
We are two first-year Osgoode Hall Law School students from Toronto, Canada looking to fund our unpaid internship with a legal aid clinic in Dhaka, Bangladesh!
Our Project
Through a newly formed partnership, we will be the first fellows in the history of the organization to be sent on an internship to Dhaka from Osgoode Hall. We will be interning at Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), providing free legal aid. We will be heading up our own independent legal research projects on the garment industry and worker’s rights, as well as the potential interrelation of Bangladeshi law to create an anti-poverty right to food. We will also be assisting BLAST in the facilitation of legal education workshops with lawyers and law students across rural districts of Bangladesh. As interns in a client-based organization, we also know that most of our work will develop and change based on the needs of the population when we arrive. We are looking forward to this opportunity to put our legal knowledge into action.
Serwaah Frimpong
When I was in Grade 2, I created my own “international development” research project on the deplorable working conditions in the garment industry. Now, as a recent graduate from McGill University in Honours International Development Studies, I am in my first year of law school at Osgoode and I am absolutely humbled and ecstatic at the chance to have a positive impact on an industry that I read about so many years ago. Like Erin, it was the prospect of doing legal work in the community (both locally and internationally) that attracted me to Osgoode. I am hoping that my internship at BLAST will be a stepping stone to a legal career with great social impact.
Erin Elias
I am a recent graduate from the University of Ottawa pursuing a legal education with a social justice focus. I came to Osgoode because of the incredible opportunities not just for post-graduation, but also for practical, client-based work within the J.D. program. In particular, I am interested in advocating for the rights of individuals with disabilities and, alongside the work I will be doing this summer at BLAST, I will be furthering this passion in the Disability Law Intensive program when I return to Osgoode in the fall. In working with an established organization with legal expertise, particularly in the needs of the community they serve, I know that the experience I gain this summer at BLAST will be invaluable to me, and I hope that in my time there I am able to contribute in a positive way to the amazing work that BLAST does for marginalized groups across Bangladesh.
Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST)
BLAST, founded in 1993, is the largest dedicated non-governmental legal services organization in Bangladesh, operating in over nineteen districts. They provide legal aid services to women, men and children in need and without means, engage in capacity-building activities with lawyers and paralegals, and undertake strategic litigation and advocacy, facilitating access to legal aid across the spectrum from the frontlines of the formal justice system to the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. BLAST envisions a society based on the rule of law in which every individual, including the poor, marginalized and excluded, in particular women, children, peoples with disabilities, adivasis, and dalits, have access to justice and in which their human rights are respected and protected.
International Legal Partnership (ILP)
ILP is a student-directed, non-profit organization at Osgoode Hall Law School. ILP’s mission is to provide public interest legal research and assistance for the Global South. With the guidance of faculty, alumni and the legal community, ILP strives to create opportunities for students to obtain a practical global legal education in a manner that is mutually beneficial for students and partner organizations dealing with legal issues relevant to the Global South.
As ILP fellows, both of us are each responsible for these estimated costs:
General Transportation: $500
Round-trip Flights: $1500-1800
Visas: $150
Medical/Insurance: $200-400
Accommodations: $900-1200
Food: $700
Miscellaneous: $500
Estimated Total: $4450-5250
While we have both secured $3500 of funding through ILP, we need your support in financing the rest!
For more information, please see our project outline.
Our Project
Through a newly formed partnership, we will be the first fellows in the history of the organization to be sent on an internship to Dhaka from Osgoode Hall. We will be interning at Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), providing free legal aid. We will be heading up our own independent legal research projects on the garment industry and worker’s rights, as well as the potential interrelation of Bangladeshi law to create an anti-poverty right to food. We will also be assisting BLAST in the facilitation of legal education workshops with lawyers and law students across rural districts of Bangladesh. As interns in a client-based organization, we also know that most of our work will develop and change based on the needs of the population when we arrive. We are looking forward to this opportunity to put our legal knowledge into action.
Serwaah Frimpong
When I was in Grade 2, I created my own “international development” research project on the deplorable working conditions in the garment industry. Now, as a recent graduate from McGill University in Honours International Development Studies, I am in my first year of law school at Osgoode and I am absolutely humbled and ecstatic at the chance to have a positive impact on an industry that I read about so many years ago. Like Erin, it was the prospect of doing legal work in the community (both locally and internationally) that attracted me to Osgoode. I am hoping that my internship at BLAST will be a stepping stone to a legal career with great social impact.
Erin Elias
I am a recent graduate from the University of Ottawa pursuing a legal education with a social justice focus. I came to Osgoode because of the incredible opportunities not just for post-graduation, but also for practical, client-based work within the J.D. program. In particular, I am interested in advocating for the rights of individuals with disabilities and, alongside the work I will be doing this summer at BLAST, I will be furthering this passion in the Disability Law Intensive program when I return to Osgoode in the fall. In working with an established organization with legal expertise, particularly in the needs of the community they serve, I know that the experience I gain this summer at BLAST will be invaluable to me, and I hope that in my time there I am able to contribute in a positive way to the amazing work that BLAST does for marginalized groups across Bangladesh.
Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST)
BLAST, founded in 1993, is the largest dedicated non-governmental legal services organization in Bangladesh, operating in over nineteen districts. They provide legal aid services to women, men and children in need and without means, engage in capacity-building activities with lawyers and paralegals, and undertake strategic litigation and advocacy, facilitating access to legal aid across the spectrum from the frontlines of the formal justice system to the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. BLAST envisions a society based on the rule of law in which every individual, including the poor, marginalized and excluded, in particular women, children, peoples with disabilities, adivasis, and dalits, have access to justice and in which their human rights are respected and protected.
International Legal Partnership (ILP)
ILP is a student-directed, non-profit organization at Osgoode Hall Law School. ILP’s mission is to provide public interest legal research and assistance for the Global South. With the guidance of faculty, alumni and the legal community, ILP strives to create opportunities for students to obtain a practical global legal education in a manner that is mutually beneficial for students and partner organizations dealing with legal issues relevant to the Global South.
As ILP fellows, both of us are each responsible for these estimated costs:
General Transportation: $500
Round-trip Flights: $1500-1800
Visas: $150
Medical/Insurance: $200-400
Accommodations: $900-1200
Food: $700
Miscellaneous: $500
Estimated Total: $4450-5250
While we have both secured $3500 of funding through ILP, we need your support in financing the rest!
For more information, please see our project outline.
Organizer
Erin Elias
Organizer
North York, ON