BY RICHARD MUPONDE
OVER 800 Binga residents who had no birth certificates and national identity cards were documented by the registry department on Friday last week.
Hundreds of villagers thronged Tyunga and Luunga wards in Binga North constituency for registration which was done under the theme Sport for Registration.
The mobile registration exercise was facilitated by a Binga non-governmental organisation Basilwizi Trust working in conjunction with the Ministry of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation.
Tyunga and Luunga wards are in the remotest parts of Binga which do not have telephone or mobile network and has a bad road network which contributed to a higher number of undocumented villagers as transport to either Binga which is 160km away or Siabuwa is expensive.
Speaking at the occasion, Basilwizi Trust director Christopher Mweembe said it was good that traditional leaders were at the forefront of mobilising their subjects to come for the exercise.
“It’s very encouraging that traditional leaders were at the forefront in mobilsing people to come for this exercise so that they get documentation. We are happy that they know the importance of documentation to their subjects,” Mweembe said.
Chief Sinakatenge also said as traditional leaders they were happy about the programme which made it easy for their subjects to be documented.
“We are happy for the efforts and as traditional leaders it’s a cause for concern to lead a community whose identity is unknown,” Chief Sinakatenge said.
The exercise comes after Basilwizi Trust recently helped 300 villagers in other wards who had never obtained birth certificates since birth to get them from the registry offices, with the eldest being over 60 years.
The project was held under the theme The Citizens Campaign for Birth Identity Documents.
