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Children's experiences with the law
Justice for Children Trust
July 14, 2008

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Tapiwa's story
Working with children in difficult circumstances sometimes requires one to go the extra mile considering the dynamic nature of some issues brought to your attention. Tapiwa Shumba* is a healthy, nice looking and intelligent 16 year old boy in Form 4 at a school in Harare. At first sight one would not even think that he is in the facing a predicament that eats him away by each passing day.

His parents, divorced when he was a few weeks old and his mother migrated to Mozambique, her country of origin where she unfortunately passed away. As if that was not enough, Mr. Shumba later died of Aids leaving Tapiwa orphaned at a very tender age. All this happened before Tapiwa had obtained a birth certificate. Tapiwa is now staying with well wishers in Harare and these people are assisting him by paying for his school fees among other issues. He has since lost track of his relatives since he last saw many of them the day his father was buried.

Tapiwa suffered a lot of emotional stress and psychosocial problems due to the fact the he did not have a birth certificate. This was worsened by his peers who constantly told him that he did not have an identity and he was as good as non existent. His peers called him all sorts of names like orphan, destitute and it not only pained him but made him lose his self esteem too. Despite weeping quite often this sometimes impacted negatively on his school performance. When he heard people talking about identity documents, his heart bled and he felt embarrassed, guilty and discriminated against. Tapiwa was good in sport but he always suffered the agony of failing to participate at several events since he did not have a document specifying his name and age.

Obtaining a birth certificate looked liked a pipe dream and Tapiwa could not sleep thinking of the possibility of failing to sit for his final examinations signalling doom for his erstwhile promising life. Tapiwa would always dream of obtaining a birth certificate and something at the back of his mind kept telling him that one day things would be alright.

One day as he listened to the Radio Zimbabwe on the programme "Zivai Mutemo", he saw a glimmer of light at the end of a supposedly very long tunnel. This was when he heard one of JCT`s legal officers in an interview with one radio station and fortunately the topic was on birth registration. The boy immediately wrote a letter to JCT explaining his predicament and the organization was swift in response calling him to the offices for discussions.

Tapiwa cursed himself when he heard the requirements for a person in his situation to obtain a birth certificate, in particular the requirement for him to bring witnesses. Efforts were made to try and locate some of his relatives in Bindura but in vain.

JCT then wrote a letter to the Registrar's office introducing Tapiwa and explaining his situation. This led to him obtaining a birth certificates and a national I.D card at long last. He was so ecstatic and he felt that a new chapter had begun in his life and that he was having a new beginning.

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