A helping hand

An hour away from Zamboanga City, south of the Philippines, is a Muslim community of Labuan where many of the adults and children are without birth certificates. Naora Juani, 52, admitted that she has never experienced having a birth certificate. “It is so expensive and it takes time to get one,” she said. Her seven children did not have birth certificates as well.

Naora and her seven children live in a shanty in the said village. Her husband died years ago of a heart attack. His eldest son provides for the family by selling fish.  A good catch can give an income between Php100–200 ($7) in a day. But this seldom happens because there is not much fish to catch nowadays.

Labuan is also where many big fish-canning companies are located. The village people said that these companies’ big fishing vessels take away most of the fish and leave them with only a few, if nothing at all, to catch. Sometimes they would venture to these companies’ territories despite warning that they would be shot if they come near the prohibited areas. The village folk said that many of their neighbour fishermen have already been killed for not heeding the warning.

“What can we do? We have no food, we have no money. Our family will die if we do not eat for days. We know nothing, only fishing,” Abduradjack Amsang said.

Earning meagerly from fishing, many of the villagers said they cannot pay for birth certificate that costs from Php100 ($2) for a newborn baby to Php700 ($140) for late registration or a baby registered after a month onwards. It also takes months to process the birth certificate. Sometimes, people resort to bribing health officers to hasten the process. Sometimes, the registrant would just be told that their record has been lost so they would pay again.

This is what happened to Saripa Sahibul, 42, a mother of 7 children. “Right after I gave birth to my eldest son, I had him registered. After a few days, I followed it up. But the health officer at that time said the record was lost. I kept following up but to no avail. If I register him again, I would pay Php700.  I have no money. That’s why for years, my children have no birth records.”

A birth certificate is a also requirement when children go to school. Teachers would ask students to show their birth certificates before they can enrol or receive school cards. In the absence of birth certificate, students presented a temporary identification card. The village is home to 128 World Vision sponsored children.

“Many of the people here did not have birth certificates,” Jeff Kimpa, an officer of Jabu-Jabu, a non-governmental organization that helps Muslim communities in Zamboanga City obtain birth and burial certificates. “How can they avail? Birth certificates are so expensive. This is a hand-to-mouth existence community.”

The community’s situation had led Jeff and his two other friends, Pastor Eliseo Pakit and Edgard Saladaga, to propose a project that would give families to have their children baptized and birth certificate at no cost. “It was not that easy. We received resistance from the people. They thought they are being converted from Muslim to Christian. We made several dialogues to the Imams (Muslim religious leaders) and the people in the community. After six months of meetings, they understood and finally agreed,” Jeff, a Muslim himself, said.

Funded by World Vision, the project started in 2008. More than a hundred children were given free birth certificates through the paggunting, Muslim baptismal ritual headed by an Imam. As Jeff described, it was a “mass baptism” that day.

Like the rest of their neighbours, five of Naora’s seven children received birth certificates.  Of these five children were Artiya, 17, and Jarshum, 15, both are World Vision sponsored children since they were 5 and 4 years old, respectively. Artiya and Jarshum are now highschool students.

Naora could not contain her happiness when her children were given birth certificates. “I was so happy that World Vision helped us. I know it was just a little thing for you but for us this is a big help. May Allah bless you for your kindness to poor families like us.”

Through the paggunting project, many of the children and youth were given birth certificates. The project still continues to this day with families paying only Php50 ($1) instead of Php100 or Php700, and they can get the document in a few minutes.

By Lanelyn Carillo