Birth Registration in South-East Asia
A man from Cambodia shows his birth certificiate
Alfred was born in the Philippines without a birth certificate.
He applied to become a candidate to the 1998 Presidential Election to see his application refused. He did not have a birth certificate and could not prove to the authorities that he was a Filipino citizen.
In south-east Asia, which accounts for two-thirds of the world's unregistered children, Plan, together with a network of humanitarian organisations, has established the Unregistered Children Project.
The project has been implemented in various countries including Vietnam, The Philippines, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India, Nepal and Thailand and aims to raise awareness of this problem among governments and the general public.
Plan underlines to national and local governments just how important birth registration is. Without it, they cannot possibly determine how many people live in their country, how many doses of vaccine to buy to protect their citizens against major diseases or how many schools to build. The project highlights children's universal rights to a name and nationality. The project has brought mobile registration units to isolated communities, has run 'catching up' initiatives on the first day of school and participated to local festivities, national workshops and conferences.
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