BarefootLaw wins social media accolade in Africa

BarefootLaw, Uganda’s most active online legal portal, over the weekend emerged as the Best Facebook Page in Africa when it won “Facebook Page of the Year” at the inaugural Social Media Awards Africa. The awards were held in Lagos, Nigeria.

BarefootLaw is a multi-award winning Social enterprise dedicated towards leveraging Information Technology to improve access to legal services. It is an initiative fully funded and run on the resources and time of the members and volunteers involved in it.

Its objective is the smart synthesis of Law and Technology to overcome some of the challenges currently faced in accessing Legal services in Uganda.

The Social Media Awards Africa (SMAA) was created to recognize and celebrate excellence and relativity in the use of social media tools and platforms by individuals and organizations across the continent. Awarding 15 awards across 4 broad categories, the SMAA are seen as a genuine, timely intervention for promoting distinctive creativity, peerless innovation and pervasive developments on the African continent through the best use of social media platforms and the rest of the social web.

Speaking after receiving the Award on behalf of BarefootLaw, the Head of Digital Strategy and Content at BarefootLaw, Allan Zaramba said: “this is a true testament to the dedication of a small but very explosive team, who volunteer incredible hours to ensure that many Ugandans, in Uganda and in the diaspora can get free legal information and access services in the Justice, Law and Order Sector”.

Recognizing that BarefootLaw was the only Ugandan entity out of the many that were nominated to win at a Kenya, Nigeria and South African dominated event, Gerald Abila, Founder and Managing Director at BarefootLaw opined that “there are several great initiatives in Uganda that are harnessing technology for change, and going forward, we can only expect greater stories and impacts from Uganda. Technology has truly provided an opportunity to impact societies and for Africa – we are taking this opportunity seriously.”