Exist to Exist - Birth Registration in Zimbabwe

As Zimbabwe’s young population look to their futures it’s clear to see that the birth registration crisis still looms large and in their way. Making progress, we’ve been meeting with people where they live to help them navigate the system and give their children a full chance at in life. One of the ways to do this has been through going into local community health centres and speaking to expectant mothers and new mothers, as getting things done early often makes the process much easier.

We’ve been lobbying district representatives to change their rules around allowing an expectant mother who is sadly underage to register herself in advance rather than waiting to give birth before she can do so. These hidden barriers to birth registration for mothers are among the many issues with the nation’ birth registration system and we must drive change.

We’ve also been making sure that community leaders get training from government officials so that they can actively drive birth registration rates and standards in their areas.

We look forward to giving a few more insights into the vital work we are doing, next time.

Thank you to anyone and everyone for your support.

Links:

• ZET Facebook
• ZET X / Twitter
• Trinity Project X / Twitter

Our UK based team recently had the pleasure and the heartache of visiting our projects around rural Bulawayo. Whilst there they were privileged to meet a family who have been going through significant hardship. With both parents having mental impairments the family has been surviving only with the support of the local community. The three children needed birth certification and the mother having lost her own documents then presented to the hospital but could not remember when she had given birth and their records could not be found. The two eldest, also living with mental impairment, have dropped out of primary school as a birth certificate is required for completing exams. With limited ability to earn the family has been doing odd jobs around the neighbourhood where some are very supportive however others have exploited them paying only $1 for washing clothes when the proper rate is $10. With the support of ZET and Trinity Project, the local Child Protection Committee, an ex-local councillor and other well-wishers we were able to secure birth certificates for all the family and the hope is that the youngest child will be the first in the family to complete primary school.

Our team also visited a community dialogue attended by around 40 women where issues of birth registration were discussed with a view to increasing uptake of this vital service. Even amongst the group in attendance over half the children there (brought along by mothers and grandmothers) were unregistered. A number of perceived challenges and misconceptions were addresses including issues as basic as; who is eligible to register a child, what happens when a parent has migrated to South Africa, what if a mother doesn’t have her own documents and under what circumstances can a grandparent register a child. From this community forum an action plan is created aiming at addressing issues and ensuring registration is treated as an essential part of life. Failure to do to so renders their children permanently vulnerable so is a message that communities must and do respond to.

We thank anyone who has kindly donated to help get our work this far.

Links:

• ZET Twitter
• Trinity Project Twitter
• ZET Facebook Page