A birth certificate is a lifelong passport to many rights. Without it, a person cannot access public education, healthcare, and even legal systems.
In Kenya, a child without a birth certificate can’t be admitted to a public school, or register for the national exams needed for admission to secondary school and university. As unregistered children grow into adults, they find they cannot legally marry, own certain types of property, access the banking system and formal labour market, or even vote.
Between 2011 and 2015, ChildFund helped over 77,000 vulnerable children in Kenya`s coastal region and Nairobi to obtain birth certificates, giving them lifelong access to their civil rights.
Two of these children, five-year-old Akinyi and seven-year-old Ochieng, live in Nairobi with their mother Catherine, who lost her own parents when she was just 15. Catherine earns a living by doing irregular jobs, including washing clothes for her neighbours. Before she and her children received their birth certificates, it was impossible for Catherine to access various government services on their behalf, such as a cash transfer program for children made vulnerable by poverty, or HIV and AIDS.
“I have no living parents and, to apply for the monthly government cash transfer program for orphans, I needed my birth certificate and those of my children to prove that we are in need,” says Catherine.
She adds: “I did not have any money to apply for birth certificates, but with ChildFund`s assistance we were able to get the papers. I used them to apply for the cash transfer program, and now I get 2,000 Kenyan shillings (US$19) a month, which I mainly use to buy food and other basic items for my family.”
Statistics indicate that only half of all Kenyan children have birth certificates. The reasons for this are many, and include the lengthy application process and inability to travel to registration offices, but a lack of money to pay the application fees is the major issue for many families.
“Before I got these certificates, my daughter could not join a government school, and I struggled to pay school fees for a lower-end private school. When I received Akinyi`s birth certificate, she was finally able to enrol at a government school. I can also now apply for government medical insurance for my family through the National Health Insurance Fund,” says Catherine.
Now, with a single piece of paper in their possession, Catherine, Akinyi and Ochieng have access to more support and opportunities than ever before, which means a brighter future ahead.
To mark World Day Against Child Labour this week, we share the story of Ma Nwe, one of the thousands of children in Myanmar who are forced out of school too early and into work too soon.
Ma Nwe was eight years of age, and had completed less than four years of primary school, when household poverty forced her to leave school to care for her younger siblings while her parents were at work. Just a few years later, tragedy struck with the death of her father and Ma Nwe`s working life began in earnest. She was just 13 years old.
In Myanmar, there is widespread acceptance of working children. It is estimated that almost one in five children aged 10-14 years are participating in the labour market. According to International Labour Organization definitions, around half of this gro’p are engaged in hazardous child labour work which puts a child`s physical, mental or moral wellbeing at risk.
To have regular employment in a factory makes Ma Nwe luckier than many of her peers. But the hours are grinding, particulary for a child. Nor is there any reprieve on weekends. Seven days a week, she gets up at 6.00am to get ready for work. Ma Nwe has just one rest day each month, on a full moon day, when the factory closes.
The majority of children in Myanmar who drop out of school do so to earn money to support their family or themselves. Some sell basic snacks, and odds and ends, others work in food preparation and packing, or in tea shops and restaurants.
Where jobs are few, children may be found plucking their way through rubbish looking for plastic and other materials they can exchange for cash. Those in formal employment work mainly in agriculture, forestry, fishing, manufacturing trades, mining and brick making.
Now aged 17, Ma Nwe should be close to finishing secondary school. Instead, she has been an employee at the factory for four years. She earns less than $80 a month and gives the whole amount to her mother to keep the family afloat.
With low levels of education and a lack of vocational skills, the future employment prospects for children like Ma Nwe are severely limited – jobs which are available will be accompanied by low wages and possibly harsh or dangerous conditions. Ma Nwe’s mother knows this all too well. Having left school as an eight-year-old, she has worked for many years as an unskilled labourer on construction sites – hauling bricks and materials. It is back-breaking and poorly paid work.
Unlike her mother, Ma Nwe can read and write. Nonetheless, she sees limited prospects for her future employment. She says: “When I had to leave school, I was still young and I didn`t feel much. But now, when I see others going to school, I feel so sorry.”
