Ms Nor Nasib:

If the court does not have a translator a staff member of Amal has to be swear an oath to tell the truth and then that staff member can translate for the person we brought with us to court. In a court session where the court has a translator, the translator can translate for the person attending court if he or she does not understand what has been said. In the case of translation, languages are different. Even Arabic has different jargon. If the person attending court does not understand what is being said, that person will ask a member of our staff who will be present to clarify what has been said. That is the service we provide.

Court proceedings can be very long. Normally, we also provide some food for women who need guidance. Some sessions are held outside Dublin and sometimes we have to travel with the person concerned to Tullamore or other areas to be present with them in court. That is new for us. Our cases mainly involve domestic violence. We provided training to our staff on what needs to be done if other issues arise. Some of our staff members have been harassed by perpetrators. We have trained our staff in the accompaniment service to be better able to provide support to people involved in such cases.