respondents said that they were not aware of any refugee children or population,
although there were many non-Zimbabweans on the farms.
In Bindura District, however, it was revealed that the majority of unregistered
children were offspring of non-Zimbabweans, who where themselves also
unregistered. At Ran Mine, Bindura, it was said by the ZANU (PF) Chairman at
the mine that although over the years, there had been a diffusion of people of
different nationalities to all sectors and areas of society, it was still evident that
many people of Malawian, Zambian or Mozambican origin are commonly
found on farms and mines. Such people, concurred the District Administrator
(DA) in Hurungwe, the RGs office in Bindura and SOS Bindura senior officials,
normally did not have birth or national registration.
4.19 Socio-economic coping strategies of unregistered children
Respondents revealed that the absence of birth registration documents or a birth
certificate perpetuated a cycle of poverty, especially in the farms. 60
respondents or (84%) of those on the farms had no birth certificates. This results
in such unregistered children working on the farm, marrying and having
children of their own, whom they cannot register because they too are
unregistered.
Unregistered children (who grow to become adults) in other settlement areas
such as towns and mining locations also face similar challenges of an insecure
future. They cannot get formal jobs (because a birth certificate or I.D. will be
required). It was said that many of these children ended up engaging in menial
jobs. It was brought out in the research that such a situation led to the
perpetuation of paucity and social lack, and the continuation of deprivation from
generation to generation.
4.20 Support of other agencies towards unregistered children
77% of respondents mentioned that they were unaware of the support of other
agencies in the issue of birth registration. In both Bindura and Hurungwe 23%
of respondents said that they were not sure of who else was involved in birth
registration campaigns. However, besides JCT, organizations such as SOS,
FOST (Bindura), Batsirai Group (Chinhoyi) and the Red Cross (Bindura) work
collaboratively to support issues of child registration whenever such cases are
reported. In Bindura, SOS refers unregistered children to the Department of
Social Welfare for assistance in obtaining documents for them. The Legal
Resources Foundation (LRF) is also working with the RG’s office in the drive
to obtain birth registration for children in need. In both districts JCT also
collaborates with the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Justice who
have been very supportive whenever cases have been referred to them.
4.21 Focus of future advocacy campaigns in Birth Registration
The research affirmed the philosophy of CRC that the registration of children is
critical in bestowing and restoring the dignity of children and that it accorded its
Birth Registration Research Report/2007
43
Select target paragraph3
Add to table of contents