A £10k fundraising campaign has been launched by Kent Law Clinic students to help meet costs for an international exchange visit by a law clinic in Sierra Leone.

The visit is the first in a new exchange programme with the Law Clinic at the University of Makeni (UniMak). Six students and two staff from UniMak will stay at Kent’s Canterbury campus for 10 days in January/February 2018 and it is hoped that a smaller number of students from Kent will then visit Sierra Leone in April 2018.

The visit to Kent will include trips to courts in Canterbury and London, a trip to the Houses of Parliament and meetings with local lawyers. There will also be a moot in the Wigoder Law Building’s purpose-built Moot Room on the University’s Canterbury campus.

The Makeni-Kent Project Exchange’s fundraising campaign will help meet the costs of air, train and bus travel, accommodation and an amount in respect of subsistence. The cost per student is around £1,500. Fundraising activities planned for 2018 include a pub quiz, a fun run and a gaming night at Mungo’s Bar and Bistro on campus. Contributions from sponsors/donors are warmly welcomed on the GoFundMe page.

A partnership with UniMak began with the law clinic in Makeni in 2014. Sierra Leone has a Common Law jurisdiction, based on that of the UK, with the two countries sharing similar legal procedure and also some case-law and statute. Kent students work under the supervision of Law Clinic solicitors to help with legal research for criminal cases being defended by students and volunteer lawyers in Sierra Leone.

The Makeni-Kent Project aims to enrich the legal education of law students in both countries with a shared determination to also deepen knowledge and understanding of each other’s cultures and legal systems.