The International Bridges to Justice team would like to highlight the efforts of one of our 2008 JusticeMakers competition finalists, Evans Muswahili. Evans submitted a proposal with the hope of winning a US$5,000 fellowship to fund his project, which aims to increase awareness of legal rights of the detained in Kenya through education and advocacy, primarily among women and other marginalized groups. He went to great lengths to encourage people to vote for him in the JusticeMakers People’s Choice Awards competition.

In addition to using more popular advertising methods such as distributing flyers, sending emails (he estimates that he sent about two-thousand in total) and phoning people, he spent a lot of time lobbying local organizations and student groups for support. In keeping with his goal to fight discrimination, he combated the issue of lack access to the internet by organizing transportation to internet-cafés for his willing supporters, where he had reserved computers so they could vote at no personal expense. Another noteworthy effort was his text-messaging campaign. Evans took advantage of his mobile-phone network-provider’s cheap texting offer to create a chain-letter of sorts; he texted ten of his friends, who in turn texted ten of their friends, and so on until he started receiving his original text himself. He estimates that he reached over five hundred people with this method.

IBJ is currently seeking funding for the 2008 JusticeMakers competition finalists so that participants such as Evans can realize their projects. We encourage all future applicants to the JusticeMakers fellowship competition to pursue the People’s Choice Award and promote justice in their communities with the same dedication and fervor that Evans demonstrated in Kenya.

 Click here to read more about Emuswahili’s proposed project.