Kisumu County Plan International has challenged parents in Kisumu to register their infants with the department of registrar to acquire birth certificates.
The NGO’s awareness creation officer James Agengo was speaking on Saturday to journalists at their offices on birth certificate registration, after a summarized report that showed most infants lacked birth certificates, and urged them to quickly seek on ways of acquiring the documents.
The officer noted that birth certificates were important since they helped in social security, Medical aid, school enrollment, drivers’ license, and social services such as marriage licenses, challenging parents not to neglect birth certificates issuance as it was of more significant to them.
Agengo noted that birth certificates served as a proof of one’s relationship to parents, which is required for child support services such as inheritance and eligibility for benefits.
He added that through the said documents, it determines the government funding to the public health, it also helps to determine what programmes to get priority for government funding such as the abstinence and teen pregnancy prevention programme, head start and children with special health care needs.
“We therefore ask parents not to neglect birth certificate issuance as it is very important, as it helps in planning events,” noted Agengo.
His counterpart, Millicent Oyier echoed same sentiments, saying it was the only way that certified child eligibility.