Give 200 orphans in Zimbabwe access to education

Dear Zimbabwe Educational Trust supporter,

Thank you once again for your donation, hope you had a lovely festive period. We wanted to update you on the progress of our Trinity project by showing you exactly who your money is helping! Our project manager, Mr Pumulani Mpofu, has given us this moving report from the heart of the project. Viola’s thought-provoking story highlights how deep-rooted, life-damaging and difficult to escape the birth certificate problem is in Zimbabwe. As Pumulani’s account shows, Zimbabwe Educational Trust’s work in promoting awareness about the importance of birth certificate registration is vital in ensuring that the lives of individual Zimbabweans are not damaged and their opportunities inhibited, by what has unfortunately become a cultural tradition of non-registration of birth certificates. 

“Whose fault is it?” by Mr. Pumulani Mpofu, Trinity Project Leader

The Zimbabwean constitution’s assertion that each and every child has a right to learn is very much contradicted when children are without birth certificates.  Some children cannot enter school at all, while those who do can’t take their Grade seven examinations, and thus are unable to gain the qualifications that they need to escape the poverty cycle. Viola is in Grade seven at Mhali Primary School, and is one of the students whose being prevented from taking their Grade seven examinations because of her lack of birth certificate. She was born on 27^th November in 2002, here in Bulawayo.

She has lived with her maternal uncle since her parents died, but her uncle is also suffering as a result of the prevalent birth certificate problem in Zimbabwe. Her uncle works a variety of jobs to support his family but is unfortunately unable to get a proper job because, like Viola he was unable to sit his Grade seven exams. This was also the case for his other four siblings – their mother did not have a birth certificate, which made it very difficult for the children to get their mother’s death certificate when she died.  A death certificate is essential in order to gain orphan status, which without children are unable to gain government financial support for education.

 Getting death certificates can be very problematic for these families, who are already carrying the burden of a deceased relative. A search fee is required for a death certificate to be issued without a birth certificate. For Viola, her grandfather Patrick is unable to raise the money required for a search fee because of his status as unemployed, and the 10 grandchildren under his care in his Matapo rural homestead. Law also requires that, if the search fee is available, a blood relative of the deceased, preferably the parents, has to act as a witness for the death certificate to be issued. However, family disputes between Patrick and his wife’s father due to Patrick not following the proper socio-cultural marriage procedures, Patrick’s father in law will never acknowledge him. Trinity are helping Patrick, contacting his wife’s father to help Patrick gain his wife’s death certificate.

For Viola, the problem can be traced back to her grandmother. Viola’s grandmother did not live with her parents growing up, and thus the relatives that she was staying with did not tell her parents to register their child. Viola’s grandmother went to work at Matopo village, where she met Patrick. His unemployment status means he is no position to fulfil his in-law’s wish of going for formalities. All five of his children have been disadvantaged, and his grandchildren will never go to high school, and thus never get proper and paying jobs. The Trinity Project’s work in increasing awareness of the damage that not registering for birth certificates can cause, and the way it can cripple a family and prevent progress is vital.

In such a scenario, there is no utopian solution. Viola was enrolled at Mhali Primary School because her mother promised to register her before the end of her first year at Primary level, which never happened. Viola’s mother, Musa was unable to register because she herself was not registered, and neither was her own mother. The way in which non-registration of birth certificate can prevent access to the gift of education is evident.

Non-registration for birth certificates is a social, cultural and economic issue and if people are continuously given an insight regarding to how they can avert such scenarios, perhaps every child in Zimbabwe can be registered. Thus, the work of Trinity Project in promoting awareness, which is only possible through your continued support, is imperative in providing education to all in Zimbabwe.

Thank you very much for your continued interest in our project, as you can see birth certificates are causing problems in Zimbabwe to many children, just like Viola.

Best Wishes,

Flo Henry

Communication and Operations Intern

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Hello,

We recently received the following story from our project staff in Bulawayo. This moving tale demonstrates the cultural difficulties which children often face in their attempts to access education, and why it is vital that we continue to fund this project so that every child has the chance to enrol in school and build a brighter future for themselves.

Thank you once again for your continued support.

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FAILED BY CULTURE - A report by Mr P Mpofu

Elinate and her younger brother Prince will never go to school for the rest of their lives if their uncle Elisha Khumalo does not change his mind regarding to the way he views them. They will only spend their lives looking as other children go to school and wishing they were born from a different setting .Elinate was born on the 23^rd of March 2000, while her younger brother was born five years later on the 7^th of December, their mother is Sakhile Khumalo. Up to date these two kids have never had a taste as to what it is like to be in school because they do not have birth certificates and school heads are refusing to enrol them as per the law of Zimbabwe which states that one should have a birth certificate so that she /he can be enrolled in a particular school.  

These kids mentioned above will live to witness their future dreams being shattered because without birth certificates they cannot be able to even do dirty jobs or to even register their children when they go up, yet their uncle is still firm on his decision of denying them the right to be registered. The story of Elinate and Prince is shared by many Zimbabwean children who are denied the right to birth registration because of socio cultural factors as is the case with Elinate and Prince. Elinate and Prince were born out of wedlock which is somehow a taboo in the African context. To make matters worse their parents were cohabiting which resulted in non payment of lobola which is a great of cultural symbol that which has to be respected and cherished by everyone.

A man has to pay lobola in order for him to be viewed as a son in law which was not the case with Taurai (Prince and Elinate‘s father),who did not bother to go for lobola negotiations and hence he never paid lobola(bride price) to the Khumalo clan. This negatively affected his children and also   became a bone of contention between Taurai and the Khumalo family resulting in serious enmity between the two parties. Culturally Lobola is believed to appease spirits and make them happy such that they bless a marriage and create everlasting good relations between the dead and living members of the families involved in Lobola negotiations. Elinate and Prince were then regarded as outcasts and illegitimate children and to make matters worse their mother and father separated after six years which resulted in Sakhile returning to her parents place because she had nowhere else to stay due to lack of finances, which created more tensions between her and her brothers because culture looks down upon a woman who leaves her marriage and goes back to her parents place. Sakhile did not at first register her children because she wanted them to use their father’s surname as per tradition  where by the society identifies one by his surname or totem which instils self fear to women who would have been left by their husbands to register their children out of fear of being looked down by the society.

More over culturally one has to use his or her paternal surname and failure to do that may result in ancestors being angered thereby bringing bad luck and even mental illness as per cultural belief to the individual not using his /her original surname. This cultural belief refrained Sakhile from registering her children using her surname before going back to her parents place out of fear of the unknown as she did not want her children to be subjected to the above misfortunes. Thus Prince and Elinate remained unregistered even though their mother would have been able to register them alone as a single parent. By the time Sakhile got rid of the fear of the unknown when her children were being exempted from school, she then decided to register her children using her surname of which her elder brother threatened to chase her and her children if ever they attempt to use the Khumalo surname which is associated with royalty and honour because it traces back to King Mzilikazi, the founder of the Ndebele kingdom. To Sakhile’s brother, the children are not part of the family because their father did not pay bride price and worse still is from a different tribe. There is nothing that other family members can say or do because he (the brother) is the first born and his father is late and as per custom he is now regarded as the head of the family and whatever he says should be respected because he is the family spokesperson.

This socio cultural issue has hindered Elinate and Prince from attaining their rights to identity and education. These children spend the entire day selling vegetables by the street corners and if nothing is done, they will spend their entire lives selling vegetables so that they can get money to help their mother in their upkeep. This story is one of the many stories in Zimbabwe which prove how culture as a way of life and other societal issues hinder birth registration. If only these children were registered perhaps their future could be different as they would be at school. This shows how Lobola, family beliefs, history and the society at large negatively affect birth registration because it explains why a large number of children in the country are not at school and do not have birth certificates. This is even made worse by the fact that most people, and the society in general, view birth registration as an alien thing which has nothing to do with their way of life because of the lack of knowledge regarding to the importance of birth certificates. The best way forward to change these conceptions is to engage the community in interactive dialogue and reach out to different segments of the population through door to door visitations so as to change the people’s current view on birth registration.