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NAMIBIA /BIRTH REGISTRATION
STORY: NAMIBIA / BIRTH REGISTRATION
TRT: 3:13
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
DATELINE: 6 OCTOBER 2009, NAMIBIA
1. Wide shot, hospital
2. Pan sign, to corridor
3. Close up, tilt mothers with babies
4. Close up, baby
5. Wide shot, filling out forms
6. Close up, filling out form
7. Med shot, woman with form
8. Close up, baby
9. Wide shot, mothers and babies
10. Close up, comparing forms
11. Wide shot, child running
12. Pan landscape
13. Close up, child
14. Med shot, old woman
15. Close up, id card
16. Wide shot, mother and baby
17. Pan people waiting
18. Wide shot, van
19. Pan, van sign
20. Wide shot, queue
21. Wide shot, shadows
22. Wide shot, registration table
23. Med shot, mother and baby with certificate
24. Close up, baby and certificate
25. SOUNDBITE (English) hon. Rosalia nghidinwa, Minister of Home Affairs and Immigration:
“Namibia is a member state of united nations with a mandate given to all states to have their people registered as their right, they can have access to health facilities, education, social grants.”
26. Med shot, register
27. Close up, Khoisan family
28. Close up, baby
29. Close up, register completing certificate
30. Close up, boy
31. Med shot, register
32. Close up, certificate
33. Med shot, handing certificate to boy
34. Close up, boy taking certificate
35.SOUNDBITE (English) Tilames Augustinus, Civil Register Control, Northern Region, Ministry of Mome Affairs and Immigration: “the challenge we face in this area, the problem is that many people nomadic people they do not know their dates of birth and do not know their names and their mother’s and father’s names”
36. Close up, mother and baby
37. Med shot, mother watching register
38. Close up, filling out form
39. Wide shot, thumb print
40. Close up, thumb print
41. Close up, handing over certificate
42. Med shot, mother taking certificate
43. Close up, baby and certificate
44. Med shot, Khoisan family singing
45. Wide shot, kids swinging
46. Close up, kids swinging
47. Close up, mother
48. Close up, pan baby
49. Wide shot, kids
More than a year ago, a novel idea for children became a reality.
The Namibian ministry of home affairs and immigration set up an office in the maternity ward at Katutura hospital, the main public hospital in the country’s capital city Windhoek.
The purpose – to make sure every child born gets a birth certificate. In a country where 80 percent of women deliver in a hospital, but only 4 out of every ten children have a birth certificate, what better place to start.
This unique partnership between two ministries, with support from UNICEF is now being rolled out to 34 health facilities. It was clear though that in such a sparsely populated country this alone was not enough. There was an urgent need to take services to those children who had missed out.
In the remote sandy down of Okongo, in northern Namibia, hundreds of people including children and old people have been camped out overnight waiting for the mobile registration services.
They are desperate to be counted as a Namibian but the nearest home affairs office is more than 100 kilometres away, out of reach for many of the people who live here.
The mobile campaign is the second in a year and has sought to bring these critical services to the most remote communities and to protect with documentation some of the poorest and most vulnerable children from early marriage, abuse and trafficking.
SOUNDBITE (English) Rosalia Nghidinwa, Minister of Home Affairs and Immigration:
“Namibia is a member state of united nations with a mandate given to all states to have their people registered as their right, they can have access to health facilities, education, social grants.”
Birth certificates are even more of necessity for Namibia’s indigenous san children. In a country suffering from very high levels of disparity, these are the poorest and most marginalized minority, who often live on the periphery without access to the most critical services.
Sakaria does not know his age nor the full names of his parents. A relative brought him along to get his papers. As an orphaned child, getting his certificate should now translate into access to a child grant as well as access to school.
SOUNDBITE (English) Tilames Augustinus, Civil Register Control, Northern Region, Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration:
“The challenge we face in this area, the problem is that many people nomadic people they do not know their dates of birth and do not know their names and their mother’s and father’s names.”
Petras’s mother has brought her newborn son. Parents are supposed to bring their own documents to prove lineage. Since she does not know his age and is herself illiterate, she places her thumbprint on his form. For the san, the civil register for the region makes an exception; otherwise it is likely they will remain undocumented and subsequently disenfranchised.
The new approach being undertaken by the government of Namibia to register all children illustrates that with a mix of creativity and pragmatism, they can ensure that all children now and in the future have access to the rights of citizenship
A birth certificate alone will not ensure Petras breaks out of the cycle of poverty in which he lives but it is a critical first step in protecting and empowering him with his rights as a Namibian child
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