Dar es Salaam, TZ – ATD Fourth World helps mothers register births – 31 Mar 2013

ATD (All Together for Dignity) Fourth World has been present for more than 10 years in the Tandale area of Dar es Salaam. Currently ATD runs a weekly Street Library project, bringing books and creativity to extremely poor children, which also acts as an outreach project to create relationship with people in this community. Three years ago ATD ran the project of Birth Registration in Tandale and last year an Adult Literacy Class, so we are well known and trusted in the area.

During March, ATD team members started visiting Tandale to speak about the project of Birth Registration. First we identified a house where we know a mother, MA, who has two young sons who attend the Street Library, she also took part in the Literacy Classes last year. MA also has an infant and two elder daughters, one who has an infant son, and she told us about other parents living in the house, some with young children, and others with children in school, but all who were needing birth certificates. She agreed to be the lead parent in the house, to gather the other parents and introduce them to us.

After several visits by the ATD team members, parents had collected the necessary paperwork they needed, helped each other to fill the BD15 forms (the form needed to make an application for a birth certificate) and on 28 March were accompanied by the ATD team to the RITA (Registration, Insolvency, Trusteeship Agency) administration offices to apply for the birth certificates. The certificates will be ready in April.

Birth registration form

The district in which a child is born decides which administration office a birth certificate application is made to.  Since some of the children living in the house of MA were born in different districts, it will be necessary to apply at different offices in April. Also some documents still need to be found by the parents for some children.