Identifying the Problem
Maya is determined. Her daughters can’t end up like her. She needs to make sure her daughter’s future is limitless.
They need an education. They need an identity. They need birth certificates.
NO DOCUMENTS OF HER OWN
Having spent her childhood helping her parents on their small farm in west Nepal instead of going to school, Maya has no official documents proving her identity.
Her family ignored their importance.
Now Maya has two daughters of her own.
“I never had any need for such documents until I tried to open a bank account and discovered my birth wasn’t registered. I’ll have to return to my birthplace to find evidence that I was born there,” Maya says.
“Luckily, my [older] daughter now has one [a birth certificate] and I feel very happy because her future is secure. She has an identity because it represents her citizenship.”
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF A BIRTH CERTIFICATE?
After moving from her and her first child’s birthplace of Jumla, Maya settled in Sukhad in the district of Kailali. She spends her days taking care of her family and looking after their farm. She is confident about her six-year-old daughter’s future because having a birth certificate means it will be easy for her to be admitted to primary school.
Schools ask for birth registration documents as legal verification of a child’s identity and most consider them as mandatory, especially to start Grade 1.
Rebika, who loves singing to her seven-month-old sister, says, “I like learning and I want to be a doctor to check people’s eyes.”
PLANNING FOR A BRIGHT FUTURE
To help her achieve her dream, Maya started saving for her daughter’s future.
“Because I didn’t have any official documents, I couldn’t open a bank account. So instead, I’ve used my daughter’s birth certificate to open an account in her name with one of the cooperatives.” Maya says.
“I’ve started saving in her name because we’ll need more money as she moves up through the grades at school.”
"I like learning and I want to be a doctor to check people’s eyes." ~Rebika, 7.
Some local cooperatives have saving schemes specifically for children, which offer higher rates of interest than equivalent accounts for adults and also provide loans at lower interest rates.
MOVING FORWARD WITH GRATITUDE
After receiving her birth certificate, Rebika joined World Vision’s child sponsorship programme. The organisation runs campaigns targeting parents with children whose births are unregistered to highlight that birth certificates are a fundamental right and essential in life. And it was after World Vision staff visited Maya that she was inspired to apply for her daughter’s certificate.
Conveniently, Rebika’s father still works in Jumla, so he was able to submit the application to the local authorities. Maya is very grateful to World Vision not only for helping her family, but also many other children in her community whose futures are secure now they have legal proof of identity.
