Story of P
P will turn into 7 years old this year. Since P was born, his only relative who could be seen around was his father. His most familiar place was the small, rented garret with the view toward Tau Hu Canal. P had no idea who his mother was, and his father would never mention her. Sometimes P wondered why the neighborhood kids always called their “mom”, the word he’d never had the chance to say. In many mornings and afternoons, P watched the neighborhood kids in the going to school. He craved for the feeling of carrying a school backpack with colorful drawings, the feeling of touching the notebooks he sometimes saw at the grocery store. P timidly asked his father “Dad, I want to go to school too”. But the father remained quiet, then turned around and said “Sorry”.
Story of the father
In that afternoon when his son asked “Dad, I want to go to school too”, there were lots of reminiscences rushing over to the father, who had the austere face and sunburned skin.
K blankly sat during the whole afternoon, and when his son went to sleep, he sat at the front door thinking about his life. “Exile” was the first word appeared in his mind. He did not want to mention the sorrow of his family. It was the pain he didn’t want to recall, the pain that caused him to have no hometown, no family registration, and no recognition.
In 2007, he thought he would have a family when the person he called his “wife”, who lived with him without marriage certificate, gave birth to a son. During the pregnancy, the couple lived the unsettled street life. They stuck in poverty too deep to the point that after the baby was born in Tu Du Hospital, his wife had to run away from the hospital because they couldn’t afford the fee. Their life which was full of concerns about meals, shelters increased the number of conflicts. The poverty pushed people to their limit. One day, his wife disappeared and left behind the child who hadn’t turned to 1-year-old yet.
The connection with his wife was found in 2010 by a bad news. The wife, P’s mom, died in a prison in Binh Phuoc Province. Why was she a criminal? Why did she die? Which is the prison in Binh Phuoc Province? The pity, the agony couldn’t answer these questions for K, questions which couldn’t be answered even by her relatives.
K’s life was like a slow-motion movie until today, when P blurted out his desire which K could feel from noticing P bewilderedly watching the kids in the neighborhood.
Since P was born, he’d been suffering from ragged life, from lack of mother, home, hometown or identity, from wandering around beg for food to get by. K wanted his son to go to school even if he could not tell if P would make it better than himself. But he was a father, so he wanted fulfill his son’s first childlike wish.
Support processes:
After receiving P’s background information and legal aid request, the social organization passed the files to MSD, and MSD brought it to National Legal Aid Center in Ho Chi Minh City (The Center).
Firstly, in order to ensure the accuracy of the information, the Center asked P to directly discuss with the officer who was in charge. After studying the proposal of the case and meeting K, the Center showed the steps to support in providing P his personal identification.
Step 1: Collect more information about the father, especially about his former family registration.
Step 2: According to K, he still kept in touch with the older sister of P’s mother. If that person had her citizen identity card and family registration book, she could represent P to submit a request for notice of birth from Tu Du Hospital.
Step 3: Add more information about the mother, like the prison where she passed away to be more specific.
However, besides providing information about his former family registration, K could not provide any other information about the mother. Her sister did not agree to represent to submit a request for P’s notice of birth from Tu Du Hospital.
When these instructions could not be accomplished, the Center suggested K to bring P to the Center to take pictures of both the father and the son, so that they could write the proposal. The officer from the Center directly went to Ward 18, District 14, Ho Chi Minh City to confirm their residence. Through the landlord and households in the neighborhood, the Center confirmed the information K shared to be true.
At that time, if K submitted a request for notice of birth from Tu Du Hospital, he would surely be rejected again. Based on information collected and with professional measures, the Center instructed K to submit a legal aid request to the Center as the basis for the Center to be P’s representative, so that they could request for notice of birth from Tu Du Hospital. With the guarantee and legal personality of the Center, a copy of notice of birth was distributed.
Since the actual residence of K was identified, the Center worked with the Ward People's Committee of Ward 18, District 4, Ho Chi Minh City to register P’s birth certificate. With the guarantee of the Center, P’s birth certificate registration was completed. However, his family name was after his mother’s like in the notice of birth.
When receiving P’s birth certification, K could not be happier. But happiness of the father was still hovered by fractures filled of sorrow.
K wished P to have his birth certificate. He was the only relative P had in this life. But P wasn’t recognized by law as his son. Understanding his thoughts, the Center did not stop until the father was recognized by law as a citizen with fatherhood, even after when P got his birth certificate.
That was why the Center decided to keep supporting him with these specific steps:
Step 1: Since K provided his former family registration which he had been expelled from, the Center would assist him in getting a copy of his birth certificate and then his citizen identity card.
Step 2: Because the landlord agreed to add K to the family registration, after K got his citizen identity card, he would be supported in signing up for family registration.
Step 3: List K as one of the members in the family registration and let the head of the household guarantee both the K and P.
Step 4: K would sign up for his fatherhood toward P where he got his family registration registered.
Step 5: Support K in legal proceedings of changing P’s family name from his mother’s to K’s.
K have never imagined that he can, once again, have “a place to belong to” and be considered as an official citizen. His son can go to school like any other children. P will enter the NEW PAGE LIFE as with full citizenship with better secured future ahead