Many rural children in Zimbabwe are destined for poverty because they lack birth certificates or other identity documents and thus can\u2019t take national exams in grade seven that would allow them to continue in school. There are myriad reasons why parents don\u2019t have this documentation, and many don\u2019t realize that it\u2019s a crime not to have it, but various nonprofits are helping them through the difficult process of obtaining the registration.<\/em><\/p>\nHARARE, ZIMBABWE \u2014 Effias Savhuka shields his eyes with calloused, work-worn hands and gazes at his children. They\u2019re playing at home, outside. On a school day.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not easy to watch your child sit around and do nothing because of circumstances that I, as a parent, have found myself in,\u201d says the 42-year-old father of five.<\/p>\n
The children, who range in age from 16 months to 15 years, don\u2019t have the identity documents required to register at school.<\/p>\n
Savhuka says he\u2019s been trying to obtain identity documents for the children since he came to Harare, Zimbabwe\u2019s capital, in early 2016. He says he visited the Registrar General\u2019s Department in September but was turned away because he didn\u2019t have the proper documents to register their births.<\/p>\n
He was told to return to Mount Darwin, the place where his oldest child was born, to get her birth certificate, but that\u2019s a 158-kilometer (98-mile) trip he can\u2019t afford. The family came to Harare so Savhuka could find work amid the country\u2019s severe economic crisis.<\/p>\n
He was also told that he needs to bring a water or electric bill, to show proof of residency.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut where I stay, I do not have access to running water, neither do I have electricity,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Without identity documents, Savhuka\u2019s children are destined for poverty.<\/p>\n
Read further: https:\/\/globalpressjournal.com\/africa\/zimbabwe\/right-identity-zimbabwes-phantom-kids-left-limbo-without-birth-certificates\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Kudzai Mazvarirwofa Many rural children in Zimbabwe are destined for poverty because they lack birth certificates or other identity documents and thus can\u2019t take national exams in grade seven that would allow them to continue in school. There are myriad reasons why parents don\u2019t have this documentation, and many don\u2019t realize that it\u2019s a […]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","region-zimbabwe","type-news-articles","item-year-631","item-theme-birth-registration"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29524"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29527,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29524\/revisions\/29527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citizenshiprightsafrica.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}