Dar es Salaam, TZ – Birth Registration – 8 Oct 2013

From March to end August we are happy to report that the project reached the target group of extremely disadvantaged families in Tandale. We know, through the experience of running this and other projects, that we are really with the poorest people when we are facing complex and different challenges.  For example, we registered the births of many children who are pre-school aged in one house. In doing so we discovered that almost all the parents had no paperwork (clinic card, announcement of birth, etc.) that we could use to register the births of the children. This made the process slower, more complicated and therefore more costly; but we are happy that we are helping our target group.

Since we introduced  the project at this house, there have been two births. Both sets of parents now know the importance of keeping the announcement of birth (Tangazo) in order to register the children’s births in the future. We also managed to get clinic cards for three children who can now access free health  care while under the age of 5.  We are pleased to report that three pre-school children from this house now attend the ATD Street Library.

We are pleased to report that the parents in each house were happy to speak about the project and support each other in the process of birth registration. Some parents do not know how to read and  write, so those who understand the registration form supported their fellow parents.  Also, on the day of  registration, we accompanied them as a group to the  RITA (Registration, Insolvency and Trusteeship Agency) offices. Going as a group helped the parents feel more confident about meeting the administration workers.