Give 200 orphans in Zimbabwe access to education

Hello,

We've had a busy summer at ZET with fundraising events, fire sales, and grant applications looking to ensure we can continue supporting the work of Trinity Project Trust in Zimbabwe.

This week we received this report from Mr Mpofu at Trinity, outlining the work they've been doing over that last few months, and how he sees the future shaping up for TPT:

During the period under review we conducted door to door community follow-ups and 10 legal advice clinics, in the process we managed to attend to 320 children without birth certificates.

Out of these 85 have managed to get birth certificates, and 235 cases are work in progress.

We have also assisted 5 orphans recover assets that belonged to their late parents and we are in the process of assisting 10 others. We also assisted in the registration of 8 deceased estates which will benefit at least 10 orphans

The complaints so far from stakeholders are that whilst we offer technical and informational assistance, we would do better if we could offer direct  financial assistance to the children  so as to enable them access legal identity documents and  inheritance. We will do much better if we have a programme vehicle as we now depend on hiring or borrowing as some cases require us to visit households within and outside Bulawayo on a continuous basis. Resources permitting we would move into rural areas as we have received several invitations.

While some issues affecting the registration process require policy attention, there is need of long term programmes designed to change cultural and behavioral tendencies which communities do not realize that are inhibiting the acquisition of legal documents

Samples of cases we have attended. Kindly note that names used here are pseudo names:

1. Paternal grandparents consulting on behalf of Siphiwe whose mother’s whereabouts are not known since the 2008. The child was left in their custody and the child has no birth certificate and they did not know how and where the child could be registered. They did not have enough birth records. We assisted them to acquire birth confirmation record from Mpilo Hospital, assisted them to draft an affidavit to report their daughter as a missing person, then finally referred to them to registrar office and Siphiwe was registered and is now ready to go to school. (*see photo above)
2. The girl in green T-shirt has no birth certificate, has failed to register and write ordinary level Zimsec examinations. Her sad story is that when she was five years old her mother died and she was then taken to Bulawayo by her maternal aunt who later (in a bid to preserve her marriage) chased her away. Then she was picked by one Mrs. Moyo (with a hat and grey blouse sitting on her right hand side) who later became her foster parent, but since 2006 she has failed to register her. We intervened and traced her original relatives in Tsholotsho, Matebeland North where we visited her homestead, local school and clinic all in search of her birth certificate. We then discovered that her mother’s death was not registered and she had died in Binga .It means that before the birth is registered her mother’s death has to be registered first. Progress is being stalled by lack of adequate finance. In the picture are her relatives. (*see photo below)
3. In the picture is our Mr Mpofu during a home visit at Groria’s home. Gloria is a widow. She had three problems. First when her husband died the relatives of her husband grabbed assets and was ordered to sell the house in the picture, when she refused they then refused to participate in any thing do with her. As a result children struggled to get education and the boy in the picture could not get a birth certificate. She had got her Id using her husband’s surname, though they were customarily married she could not register the child using her surname as she does not have a birth certificate herself and to register the child in her husband’s surname she needed support from  his relatives. Unfortunately they refused unless she complied with their demands for her to remarry her husband young brother and sell the house and move to rural areas. The relatives refused to assist her, to register her husband’ death. She resorted to vending and working as a maid so as to educate her four children.The last born child, being the boy in the picture was assisted by BEAM to access education though he could not enroll for form one without a birth certificate. When we intervened the first thing was to restore confidence and assure them that their problems could be solved. We then started the process of asset recovery, to date she has managed to recover 18 cattle and the child no longer depends on BEAM for his education. The boy was also registered though it took a lot of negotiations and pleading with the office of the registrar. The next step will be to assist the family wind the estate through the court. (*see photo below)
4. In the below pictures standing are our team members with Sandra and her children who has no birth certificates. Sandra is somehow mentally challenged, stressed out and HIV positive. The house where they stay with is dilapidated with no windows. Her husband said all windows were broken by Sandra because of her mental status. Sandra has four children since 2007. The children are not twins and all of them had no birth certificates and were not getting any medical attention. The husband to Sandra is hired as driver to fend for his family though he has no license. He is also disturbed by his the status of his family. Their first born child though she has a birth certificate is not attending school due to her mother’s mental state. The children are not accessing health and have never been immunized. Community leaders had nothing much to assist this troubled family. We intervened and assisted the family through counseling and advice. We then negotiated with the Registrar office and arranged a day when we could register the children. We then arranged and transported the family to Pumula registry sub-office and we managed to register all the four children on the same day, however more needs to be done with regard to the health of this family. (*see photo below)
5. In this picture the girl in pink top is the daughter to the late Siphiwe Moyo together with other minor children aged  6 and 4 . All the children were chased out of their mother’s house by one relative, who intimidated them using cultural threats to bewitch them. So as a result the children were hopping from place to place. The other minor child had no birth certificate. This also contributed to the inheritance problem. But however after a struggle, facing a lot of resistance we managed to register the child, we managed to be appointed  as executors through our partner  Chelmsford Executors and Trust and we evicted the property grabbers and abusers  and we handed over the house to children as seen in the photos. (*see photo below)

CONCLUSION

Trinity Project Trust continued to be a source of help for many vulnerable widows and orphans. We managed to lobby the city council to assist couples to re-register their properties so as attain a gender balance in property ownership and we are in the process of lobbying the courts to adopt user friendly approaches when dealing with cases of inheritance especially children are involved. We are now a voice for the voiceless on issues of identity and inheritance though a lot needs be done .Trinity will be more helpful if it accesses resources to assist children get legal documents and  inheritance. There is also an urgent need for a reliable transport system for effective case management. Overall we have managed to gain confidence from clients and stakeholders, hence we now need to stamp our assumed authority in issues that we deal  with not to be found failing to move  to clients. A vehicle will demonstrate seriousness  of what we believe in.

We hope this will give you a better understanding of how your continued support contributes to Trinity's work.

Many thanks,

Z.E.T