Vietnamese children get birth certificates

Kon Tum communue judiciary staff helped register children who did not have certificates, and made sure that the information on certificates was correct.

More than 800 children in Vietnam's Kon Plong district have received birth certificates as part of a program run by Plan International.

Plan Vietnam recently started working in Kon Tum in the central highlands district of Kon Plong. While consulting with communities in the area, Plan staff soon realised that awareness of the importance of birth registration was very limited.

If people did have an awareness of birth certificates, they were generally only regarded as a requirement for enrolling a child in primary or secondary school. As many children don’t go to school - instead staying home to help out with farming work - a birth certificate was not seen as an important document. However, children under the age of six with birth certificates are now able to access free health care in Vietnam.

Plan Vietnam staff had several discussions with the district and commune officials and the local government, and an agreement was reached that a local campaign would be held to ensure that all of the children involved in the child sponsorship program were registered.

Commune judiciary staff participated in the child enrolment activities, helping to register children who did not have certificates, and making sure that the information on the certificates was correct. The registration campaign was also extended to children who are not part of the sponsorship program.

The campaign helped to increase awareness about child rights among local people. Local authorities are now conscious of their duties and more responsible for ensuring that children receive their birth certificates, while also helping parents to understand the importance of registering their children.

The campaign was a great success, with 836 children in four Plan-supported communities being registered.

Mr Cong, a primary school headmaster, said that before the campaign, the teachers themselves had to help families to carry out the registration process for new students who did not have a birth certificate.

He also said that many birth certificates contained incorrect information. Often the birth dates of the children on the certificates were different to that on family records, a mistake that was partially due to the parents providing different birth dates to the teachers and judiciary or police, but also caused by poor record keeping by the local authorities.

“With Plan’s support, we have been able to amend the errors and ensure that children have the correct birth certificate before attending primary school. Nowadays, I believe that similar errors and overlaps will not take place because the responsibility and awareness of local authorities has increased significantly,” said Mr Cong.

Learn more about Plan’s Universal Birth Registration campaign.

Learn more about Plan in Australia's work in Vietnam.