As part of the implementation of its Legal Empowerment Program, APAP gave a refresher course to the paralegals that were drawn from all its legal and human-rights resource centers in Addis Ababa and Adama. The one given in Addis Ababa lasted from June 09 to 12, 2008, and the one given in Adama from June 18 to 21.

The participants of the refresher course given in Addis Ababa were the paralegals in Addis Ababa (Ferensai Legation, Akaki Kality), Debre-Berhan, and Bahir Dar resource centers, whereas the participants of the one given in Adama were drawn from Adama, Assela, Awassa, Jimma, Dire Dawa and Harar.

The training was aimed at enhancing their knowledge of the law of the land and their community-mobilization skills as well as creating a forum whereby they can share among one another their experiences on the challenges they faced while providing legal aid and human-rights information and their good practices.

Accordingly, the participants were able to acquire vital knowledge that will better equip them to upgrade the quality of the services that they render to the most marginalized segments of society and thereby enable them to have their human rights fully respected. As the method used to give the refresher course duly focused on ensuring the active participation of the participants, the discussions held were quite animated—especially during the experience-sharing sessions.