Over 200 birth certificates were shared to residents of Baramita, Region One over the weekend, according to the Department of Public Information (DPI).
The documents were presented by a team of officials including Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Indigenous Peoples’ Affairs Alfred King.
DPI said that the intervention came after a visit by the Ministry of Citizenship in May of this year. During this visit it was discovered that over 800 residents in Baramita and surrounding communities in the North West District were without birth certificates. “The team took one week in the area and they were amazed that so many persons were without birth certificates,” Regional Member of Parliament (MP), Region One, Richard Allen said, according to DPI.
The intervention is the first for Baramita, Allen said, adding that “priority was given to the children who would need their birth certificates to register for the new school term.”
The distribution of the birth certificates is an ongoing process and very soon, the remainder will be shared.
Allen said that this exercise will also be done in other Region One villages.
“This is a big plus for Baramita,” said Toshao Trevor Matheson. “Before, you always hear that birth papers are lost somewhere in the region and it cannot be found and so this is a big plus because they are dealing directly with the village,” he said, according to DPI.