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To Educate and Empower Africans with information and knowledge of all their Human Rights and Fundamental freedoms in order to secure them in a life of human dignity through participatory community action

Established since 1998, PRO is a registered voluntary, membership and non governmental organisation that EDUCATES and Empowers Africans with information and knowledge of all their Human Rights and Fundamental freedoms in order to secure them in a life of human dignity through participatory...
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Established since 1998, PRO is a registered voluntary, membership and non governmental organisation that EDUCATES and Empowers Africans with information and knowledge of all their Human Rights and Fundamental freedoms in order to secure them in a life of human dignity through participatory community action. Our work takes its inspiration from the disempowering effect of widespread ignorance found amongst broad sectors of civil society that continues to prevent communities from acquiring a voice of their own, initiating and owning their own struggles, becoming effective political groups, responsible electoral agents and social actors. An empowered community, PRO believes can more effectively bring about desirable social results and distribute social benefits through a participatory and accountable process. Our standing projects provide interrelated windows of engagement. These are the Human Rights Education & Advocacy Project, Democracy & Good Governance Project, Women & Children Rights Project & Legal Aid Project Scheme. We work with communities and groups that cut across gender, literacy, age and social lines, and use focused group project pilots to measure the impact our interventions are making in target communities. PRO believes in the power of collective action: we belong to various coalitions, such as Development Network, Transition Monitoring Group, Human Rights Information Network, Abia Development Network, and others. The members of the Board include seasoned human rights activists, respected social crusaders and religious leaders. They include: Chris. I. C. Nwadigo, Eze Onyekpere, Devison Nze, Andy Ezeani, Joseph Otteh, Rev. (Dr.) Albert Ihezie, Baba Omojola, Chief Leo Okafor etc. while our Advisory Council is headed by Ms. Shulamith Koenig of People’s Decade for Human Rights - New York. Since our founding, we have carried out activities in the South East (Imo and Abia) and South West (Lagos) of Nigeria. Our successes have been modest, given the constraints under which we have worked, yet significant. We operate bases in Lagos State, and Abia State, and run active programmes in Alaba International, Ojo, and Auto Dealers section, Apapa. WORK Profile We have organised Human Rights Seminars, Workshops, Symposia for diverse public groups, and have published Weekly Bulletins, Quarterly Journals, Pamphlets, Stickers, Posters, Human Rights Books. Some of these include: BASIS for Universal Declaration, 1948, Popular participation for Good Governance of Nigeria, Basic Rights of the citizens and various Human Rights instruments etc. Our legal Aid Scheme has benefited hundreds of people since 1998 while our Public impact litigation, (PIL) has also recorded important achievements. We continually receive testimonies by those whose lives we have affected. Many of those who have attended our programmes no longer make easy victims of oppressive conduct by law enforcement agencies, or placid preys of unlawful and manipulated, arbitrary and exclusionary policymaking, etc. At least two tertiary institutions have placed request for our on-ground presence, and our publications. We have also made considerable progress in developing clinic-type human rights programmes in schools and colleges. FUNDING STATUS Much of the funding for PRO’s programmes have come through private donations of its founders and some corporate organisations. Much of that initial funding went into capacity building programmes that also helped us test validity of some of the assumptions that animated the organisation. We have emerged from that process with keener insights, and better understanding of the dynamics of civic education and reviewed some of our methodologies as well. Overall, we have reaffirmed our conviction of the necessity of our intervention and faith in our chosen methods. We now seek to expand our funding base and seek broader collaboration with donor groups.
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