Dar Es Salaam, TZ – ATD Fourth World helps register births – 31 Dec 2013

As reported in the last update we took the birth registration project to two new houses, Mama Msham and Mama Mkude’s, in November and December.  It was interesting to discover two houses side by side in Tandale with a different make up of the families living there.  For example, at Mama Msham’s house we discovered that the families, although poor, were coping with life a little better than the families at Mama Mkude’s house.   Indicators we took for this were the paperwork the parents had at Mama Msham’s house.  Most of the parents were well organised and kept many original documents, including Tangazo’s and clinic cards for their children, some who were already in school (clinic cards are needed until children are aged 5). This might be from the influence of Mama Msham and another older mother, Mama Sabrina, who both understand the importance of keeping these documents safe.

Also, we learned that some of the mothers at Mama Msham’s house have small businesses. This meant when asked to pay their financial contribution towards the project they only needed one day notice, or sometimes had the money available.

In contrast, at Mama Mkude’s house, those parents that had some of the paperwork still needed to apply for the birth certificates, and the documents they had were in a bad condition, sometimes unreadable, that the RITA administration offices will not accept.  In these cases we need letters from school or the local Street Government office.

It was also interesting to learn that many of the families at Mama Msham’s house originally lived outside Dar es Salaam, which means we needed to apply at RITA headquarters Muhimbili. This can make the process of applying for a birth certificate more difficult because of the research they make to verify the birth.

As RITA headquarters Muhimbili deals with births from Ilala district (of Dar es Salaam) and all births outside of Dar es Salaam, their workload is considerably higher than RITA Magomeni or Temeke. Thus, it is not unusual that paperwork is lost and sometimes we have to start the process again. This meant that it has taken longer to register the births of the children at Mama Msham’s house even though the parents had some original documentation.

During November and December, members of the team needed an extra half day, or sometimes a full day, for returning to RITA offices to follow up applications in research. On these follow-up visits we do not ask the parents to accompany us as often we spend several hours at RITA with no success.

Despite these challenges for the mothers at Mama Msham and Mama Mkude’s houses, we have managed to register the births of 16 children ( 10 certificates have been delivered and 6 certificates are awaiting collection ), with some applications still to finish. We also have two certificates from Baba Godfrey’s house (the previous house) which are waiting to be corrected.  For example, on one certificate the name of the child was spelt wrongly.

We can report that the project has now reached 51 children who have their birth certificates, and 38 families have participated in the project.

During January we will ensure that any outstanding applications which remain pending are followed up.