Celebrate Annual Report 2009
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Celebrate Annual Report 2009 Contents Letter from the Chair 1 Director’s Report 3 Celebrate Clients 4 Celebrate Lawyers 6 Celebrate Basic Rights 8 Celebrate Staff 10 Celebrate Donors 11 Celebrate Board of Directors 12 Annual Financial Statements for the period ended 30 September 2009 13 Letter from the Chair This Annual Report covers the period 1 October 2008 to 30 September 2009. During this period ProBono.Org was among six NGOs selected to participate in The Atlantic Philanthropies’ Sustainability for Human Rights Organisations Programme, which aims to promote the sustainability of civil society organisations working in the area of human rights among the poor. Sustainability in this context is a holistic, systemic process that includes the effective use of human and financial resources and strategies for lasting impact and to create an enduring organisation. At the outset of the programme, the reviewer had this to say about ProBono.Org: “There surely can be no questioning the social value of ProBono.Org. An organisation such as this is absolutely critical in any society if justice is to be accessible to all. Not only does ProBono.Org serve this purpose alongside several other organisations in Gauteng and elsewhere, but it also occupies an important niche which has yet to be filled in this country – one which draws on, and builds, the goodwill and social conscience of the legal community.” - Review of the Advancement Capacity of ProBono.Org, Sean Jones, October 2008 The reviewer went on to comment on the organisation’s very limited capacity not only for core work, but also for advancement (fundraising and promotion). I am delighted to report that during the past year, ProBono.Org has rearranged its staffing and had the assistance of a number of volunteers, and has consequently achieved its 2009 milestones for the programme, which were: • To enhance the ProBono.Org Board’s understanding of, and capacity to support, advancement activities; • To upgrade the website; • To produce a professionally printed Annual Report; • To undertake advancement and fundraising planning; and • To identify 30, and make direct personal contact with 10, prospective new donors. ProBono.Org Annual Report 2009 1 As a result, the same reviewer commented after the most recent annual assessment visit: “It is a privilege to be in a position to observe the development of both ProBono.Org generally and its advancement operations specifically. The organisation itself is clearly flourishing, with an exciting vision for the future and clear growth in commitment to it by attorneys, Board members, donors and others. … ProBono.Org’s progress is inspiring and the quality of its advancement-related work is impressive. In time, there will surely be much to learn from its experience.” - ProBono.Org Report on Annual Assessment Site Visit, Sean Jones, March 2010 ProBono.Org not only is a unique organisation, but I believe that it is a blueprint for other pro bono clearing houses – all working towards increasing access to justice. Claire Tucker Bowman Gilfillan 2 ProBono.Org Annual Report 2009 Director’s Report Celebrate Celebrate is the theme of this Annual Report. We are elated about the many positive developments that have occurred in pro bono legal services during the past year, and want to recognise these publicly. This Annual Report showcases the great difference that pro bono lawyers make in our country, by touching the lives of marginal individuals and communities. It notes the role of our staff and donors, respectively, in supporting pro bono giving. And finally, it celebrates the clients – people who are often invisible, lacking power and status. Attached to the Annual Report is a breakdown of ProBono.Org’s income and expenditure for the year under review. The largest expenses were for office renovations and salaries. The office renovations were necessitated by the need to move to larger premises – from Pritchard Street in the Johannesburg CBD to the historic Constitution Hill – during October 2009. Salaries make up the largest part of ProBono.Org’s expenditure, because the core business of the organisation is to screen, clear and match matters – for which we require qualified attorneys and LLB graduates to be on our staff. For details of the expansion of the staff component during the year under review, please see the section CELEBRATE STAFF. Odette Geldenhuys Director, ProBono.Org ProBono.Org Annual Report 2009 3 Celebrate clients How important is it for The first words of many of our clients when they sit down for their consultation are, “I don’t know where us to recognise and else to turn.” or “You are my last hope.” celebrate our heroes People who require pro bono legal help are the marginalised, the powerless and the invisible. They are and she-roes! the sole reason for ProBono.Org’s existence. Were it not for them, we would have no purpose. Maya Angelou The two matters below are illustrations of why we celebrate their ability to be resourceful, persistent and frankly to survive often against great odds – all in an effort to access their most basic rights. Partially blind, unemployed and living with HIV Ms M is partially blind, unemployed and living with HIV. She had also been the victim of a rape. She was desperate to exercise her fundamental rights to health care, dignity and respect. When she consulted with pro bono attorney Simon Delaney, then of Deneys Reitz, at the HIV/Aids Legal Clinic, she was extremely distressed and traumatised. She was already 14 weeks pregnant as a result of the rape. She was destitute and not in a position to support a baby. Being partially blind, she lives in constant fear of being raped again. She has no choice but to ask friends to accompany her whenever she goes out, to protect her from attack. This also means that it takes longer to make any trips, including to and from hospital. Despite her dire situation certain public health facilities treated her most unprofessionally and inhumanely, with one institution sending her to the other. Her request for a lawful termination of pregnancy was dismissed with the blunt statement, “Everyone claims they were raped.” She was sent away with a vague undertaking that the termination of pregnancy would be done at a much later date – when she would have already been 21 weeks’ pregnant. Fortunately, with the assistance of the pro bono attorney, the swift action of the Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital and an HIV medical specialist, Ms M underwent the required procedure within the safe and legal time limit. 4 ProBono.Org Annual Report 2009 Without a birth certificate Baby O-M and hundreds, or maybe thousands, of other babies are being denied their basic right to a birth certificate. What is a person without a birth certificate? The implications for access to health care, education, social grants, and the ability to travel, are grim. Baby O-M’s parents are a lesbian couple married in terms of the Civil Union Act, No. 17 of 2006. One of the objectives of the Act is to ensure that same-sex couples enjoy the same status, benefits and responsibilities that marriage accords to opposite-sex couples. One of Baby O-M’s parents, similar to many other same-sex lesbian married couples, underwent artificial insemination so that she and her spouse could raise a family together. Baby O-M was born in June 2009 after an emotionally taxing series of treatments. His happy parents asked a registration company to register his birth and apply for an unabridged birth certificate. Unlike many other parents who register the births of their children by making use of such registration services, Baby O-M’s parents were instructed by the Department of Home Affairs to present themselves in person with affidavits “explaining their situation”. In addition, the various administrative forms allow for only the details of the ”natural father” and “natural mother” of the child. To add to these challenges that Baby O-M’s parents faced in getting him a birth certificate – which is his basic right – the electronic systems of Home Affairs cannot register the identity numbers of two females on one form, thereby making it impossible for the system to create a valid birth certificate. To add injury to insult, the bureaucrat dealing with the application told the baby’s parents to make all the changes they wanted on the birth certificate “by hand”, which would have spoilt it and rendered it invalid in future. Wayne van Niekerk Attorneys are acting in this matter and a number of parents in the same situation have been joined. An application will be launched in the South Gauteng High Court soon. Although these two exposés of the flagrant abuse of human rights are unquestionably disturbing, both demonstrate the strength, grit and resilience of our clients, whom we take this opportunity to salute. ProBono.Org Annual Report 2009 5 Celebrate lawyers Celebrate what you It is time to publicly acknowledge all the South African lawyers – attorneys and advocates – who increasingly want to see more of. undertake a range of pro bono legal interventions. The cases that follow are but illustrations of some of the pro bono legal work that has a great impact not only on clients’ lives, but also on a number and variety of Thomas J. Peters public interest issues. Labour pains Ndumiso P. Voyi Attorneys, a firm that frequently accepts labour briefs from ProBono.Org, secured a 12-month settlement for Nicolene Swart for her automatically unfair dismissal based on her pregnancy. Greenmachine Horticultural Services fired Swart after she had worked for them for less than four months. The Labour Court was of the view that Swart had succeeded in proving that her dismissal was for her pregnancy or for a reason related to her pregnancy.