News / UWE Bristol
UWE Students help prisoners study for degrees
Twenty-five law students from UWE have helped Kenyan prison inmates and wardens study for law degrees. The students provided access to course materials and legal tuition through a volunteer scheme called the African Prisons Project (APP) which covers both Kenya and Uganda.
Students spent months sourcing legal material to send to African students who were unable to access the internet through their institution. Following this, five UWE law students spent between four and ten weeks during their summer break in Kenya, teaching a foundation course for prison inmates and wardens looking to start a law degree.
Former inmate Morris Kaberia, who was released in September 2018 but who still attends classes for the final year of his degree, praised the impact of the project on Kamiti prison. Morris said that the prison “used to be notoriously violent and dangerous, but now I think the culture of education has made it a place of learning”.
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So far, five inmates have graduated with the LLB law degree, with eight more set to graduate in October.
Kathy Brown, a senior lecturer in UWE’s law department who oversees student participation in APP, said the project has given prisoners renewed hope and led both prisoners and wardens to “no longer see prison as a place of punishment” but a place that enables change.
The project also had a profound impact on the students involved. Kelly Eastham, a second-year law student who travelled to Kenya this summer, described how she was “beyond moved by every single inmate and their motivation to achieve a law degree purely to help others, with no regard for financial gain”.
Third-year volunteer George Uffumwen also praised UWE for sponsoring the trip through covering their expenses, saying that it presented an opportunity that would normally be unobtainable. “Integration into the project has given me new-found confidence,” he said.
Find out more about UWE’s involvement in the African Prisons Project at www.blogs.uwe.ac.uk/bristol-law-school/pro-bono-the-african-prisons-project
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