Grassroots harm reduction legal activism - VOCAL Kenya & Seed of Hope - Initiatives Programme 20

The Support. Don’t Punish campaign’s Initiatives Programme awards strategic, creative and collaborative projects to carry out ambitious campaigning and advocacy work-plans.

VOCAL Kenya’s initiative focused on legal and judicial activism in relation to ongoing processes of legal reform in the country. Working together, VOCAL Kenya and Seed of Hope mobilised through dissemination, peer-engagement, and advocacy activities to protect and expand the harm reduction response in the country.

Highlighting a key achievement of the initiative, Harrison Mwandacha (Seed of Hope) noted how important it was that 'we have been allowed to be part of the initiative for a bill that supports harm reduction', and pointed to next steps for their mobilisation in relation to 'campaigning for human rights, the passing of the harm reduction bill, advocacy for access to justice, and more access to quality healthcare services'.

The second edition of the Initiatives Programme took place between June 2022 – February 2023 and enabled a broad range of activities ranging from capacity development, to awareness-raising, to political engagement by six community and advocacy groups in eight countries: Colombia, Ghana-Nigeria-Liberia, Indonesia, Kenya, Lebanon, and Uganda.
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Support. Don’t Punish is a global, decentralised and grassroots-centred campaign that mobilises communities targeted by and resisting repressive drug policies, and their allies. Under a common banner, we promote harm reduction and drug policies that prioritise health, human rights and well-being.

VOCAL-Kenya is a health and human rights NGO committed to transforming the current prohibition on drugs and punitive drug control laws by moving towards drug policies based on balanced, evidence-based approaches.

This video was commissioned by the Support. Don't Punish campaign to the Rights Reporter Foundation (RRF), a non-profit organisation founded by Hungarian activists to advocate for the human rights of vulnerable populations. Our vision is of a society where policies affecting vulnerable communities are evidence-informed and respect human rights, as well as developed and implemented with the meaningful involvement of these communities. We are incredibly grateful to RRF's István Gábor Takács for his contribution to the production of these videos.

The Initiatives Programme is possible thanks to the invaluable support of the Elton John AIDS Foundation, which enables our global campaign to promote harm reduction and resource grassroots mobilisation.

Learn more about the Support. Don't Punish Initiatives Programme 2022 here: https://supportdontpunish.org/initiatives-2022/