Defend imprisoned children in Somaliland

Dear Friends,

Because of you, children who are too often forgotten did not face detention alone — they had someone to defend them.

In 2025, because of your support CLDC was able to:

• Defend 609 new children

• Secure the release of 353 children

• Reduce sentences for 129 children

Each of these numbers represents a child whose future changed because you chose to give.

Behind every case is a child reunited with family, a return to school, or a second chance to grow up outside prison walls. Your support makes these outcomes possible.

To see this impact firsthand, we invite you to hear from our Managing Lawyer, Idiris, who works daily to protect children’s rights in Somaliland: watch his video here.

Thank you for standing with these children and making justice real.

With gratitude,
Children’s Legal Defense Center

Links:

• Watch video by our Managing Lawyer, Idiris

Dear friends and supporters,

This month marks five years since we founded the Children’s Legal Defense Center (CLDC) — an organization that began with one conviction: to use the law to bring imprisoned children home in Somaliland.

In November 2020, as the world was in lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic, my colleague Idiris and I rented a single desk near the courthouse in Hargeisa and began taking cases of detained children. The future was uncertain — but from that uncertainty, CLDC was born.

Since then, our small team has defended 2,898 children.
Behind every number is a child’s story: a wrongful detention reversed, a young person given a second chance, a family reunited.

We’ve seen real change — judges interpreting the law through the lens of fairness and human rights, and communities beginning to recognize that protecting children’s rights is protecting their shared future.

None of this would have been possible without you.
Your generosity turned belief into action, and your support made justice possible for children who might otherwise have been forgotten.

As we celebrate this milestone, we also face a hard truth:
funding for justice and child protection is shrinking, even as the need continues to grow.

CLDC was born in uncertainty — and it continues through conviction. What sustains us is faith in this simple truth: justice transforms lives.

Your continued support makes all the difference.
Every donation — no matter the size — helps keep our lawyers in courtrooms, reuniting children with their families and restoring hope where it’s most needed.

Thank you for walking this road with us — and for helping ensure it continues.

With gratitude,
Caitlin Lambert
Co-Founder, Children’s Legal Defense Center