Without birth certificates, children in East London’s Duncan Village live without a sense of belonging.
To counter the problem, University of Fort Hare student, Tracy Povey and Thuma-mina NGO founder, Noxolo Mbekwa, have developed awareness campaigns.
The duo conducted their first campaign on September 15 to educate parents on birth certificate registration and to investigate the obstacles precluding children in the area from having birth certificates.
Povey said the community in Duncan Village was trapped in cyclical generational poverty due to adults not having birth certificates and IDs who perpetuate this for their children. Without birth certificates, the children cannot exercise their right to education and to welfare support which leaves them vulnerable to criminality, hunger, substance abuse and other social ills.
Povey and Mbekwa said the rates of suicide among children in the community was rising because without birth certificates they felt like ghosts.
The awareness campaign educates caregivers on the documents required, registration procedures and costs involved. Fifty mothers and grandmothers, accompanied by young children were in attendance. Also present were representatives from the department of home affairs who committed to fast-tracking birth certificates to be issued to the children present.
Povey said: “People living in low-income urban areas do not have the means to afford back and forth visits to home affairs.
“There is rampant crime, substance abuse and hunger in the community but focusing on these issues addresses the symptoms alone. With our campaign we are trying to get to the root of the problem — the growing number of undocumented children.”
Mbekwa said that in her estimation, half of the community in Duncan Village do not have IDs or birth certificates, which hampered opportunities for families to escape the cycle of poverty and leads to instances where children are manipulated into roles in organised crime or are targeted as victims of abuse.
Without access to schools, children are wandering around unsupervised, and their wellbeing is compromised.
Mbekwa said: “Without birth certificates these children are not recognised as SA citizens.
“There are children as old as 10 who have never been to school because they do not have birth certificates but the older they get, the less likely schools will accept them into grade 1.”
One grandmother blamed the department of social development for a lack of progress in her grandson’s case.
Home affairs’ East London offices’ Siyabulela Ngalwane said that DSD must intensify their efforts to fast track registration of abandoned, orphaned and vulnerable children with home affairs.
He said: “Another reason is that parents are coming years after the child’s birth when they are aware that children need to be registered within 31 days.
“We will be intensifying awareness campaigns at hospitals to intervene even before birth so that mothers arrive to give birth with all their documents.”
