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    Mutasa CCWs help children acquire birth certificates

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    Mutasa (New Ziana)- Community Child Workers (CCWs) in Mutasa district in Manicaland province who benefited from the Government-facilitated children’s rights training have hailed the program which has seen several disadvantaged children from the area aquire birth certificates.

    The training was facilitated by the ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare in partnership with the the United Nations Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF) with support from the Swedish Government.

    Maria Gondwe from Mukanda village who doubles as a CCW in ward 16 and 24 said last year alone over 100 disadvantaged children obtained birth registration certificates whilst over 500 others have also benefitted over the years with assistance from CCWs.

    “In the past most single mothers experienced intriguing battles to obtain birth certificates for their children in the absence of their husbands or a birth record, but after the training we are now able to facilitate the acquisition of these important documents working together with village heads,” said Gondwe.

    She said the program has managed to offset the burden from women of staying with undocumented children.

    Gondwe said some men upon separating with their wives would deliberately refuse to cooperate to have their children acquire birth certificates, but the coming in of the program helped them to secure birth certificates on their own.

    Gondwe said that not only children have benefited, but some adults who have survived without the documents are also benefiting. Grace Mukuyu another CCW from ward 11 in Sakupwanya village under chief Mutasa weighed in saying some parents in the area didn’t know the value of getting birth certificates for children resulting in them growing up without the documents hence they had to step in with awareness programs and help them to acquire the birth certificates.

    “Some children failed to go to school, write examinations or participate in schools’ extra-curricular activities such as sports as they did not have birth certificates,” said Mukuyu.

    Linnet Kamutsamba who also works as a CCW and hails from Honzo village in ward 11 said the Mutasa community has embarrassed the program with children now going to school with birth certificates.

    Headman Cosmas Sakupwanya said 34 headmen also attended the training of trainers course who in turn capacitated over 300 village heads in various areas such as children’s rights, prevention of children’s abuse, children’s welfare and upkeep among others.

    Headman Sakupwanya said when they were training village heads they emphasised on mainstreaming child protection issues whenever they address their subjects.

    “We focused mainly on the time frame required to attend to child abuse chases with special emphasis on reporting procedures,” he said.

    Headman Sanyamandwe who also benefitted from the training said the program helped them a lot as most children were living without birth certificates in his area.

    “The issue of birth certificates was a serious concern among many parents in this area, but following the introduction of this program, I can safely say that all parents including children are now happy as everyone is now able to acquire birth certificates,” said headman Sanyamandwe.

    New Ziana

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