By Civic Education Team
Paramount chief Kyungu of Karonga was all smiles after receiving his birth certificate on Friday, 12th May 2023 at Karonga community ground during the official launch of the birth certificate distribution exercise.
Speaking during the launch ceremony, the Paramount Chief asked NRB to produce his own birth certifcate, while imploring on all adults to also register for birth certificates.
NRB moved swiftly by requesting the chief to fill the birth certificate registration form before processing the record for the certificate.
“I never imagined that I would have a birth certificate in my life and that holding it in my hands brings a feeling that is ecstatic and out of this world,” said Paramount Kyungu.
Kyungu encouraged his subjects and all citizens in the country to register their children so that they can have birth certificates which he said would help protect the children and allow them to access social services with ease.
He also called on adults to also register for birth certificates saying the document is very important as it might open doors some other day.
“Birth registration is not only for children, adults must also register their births so that they too can have birth certificates. You never know when it would come in handy,”advised the paramount chief.
Speaking during the launch ceremony, Principal Secretary for National Registration Bureau, Mphatso Sambo underscored the importance of child registration saying it is fundamental in the protection of children’s rights.
“Malawi has about 8.4 million children under the age of 16 who are not registered and do not have any legal identity. The mass child registration therefore is targeting these children in order to protect them from all sorts of child rights abuses,” said Sambo.
The pilot mass child registration started late last year in the three districts of Karonga, Lilongwe rural east and Mwanza and over 600,000 children have been registered.