The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has appealed to Nigerian parents to prioritise that their children under the age of five must have the registration of birth and a certificate of birth for them.
UNICEF noted that birth registration is a legal right of a child and legal evidence of identity and that without a birth certificate, children are invisible to their governments.
The Country Representative of UNICEF Nigeria, Cristian Munduate, made the call
while addressing mothers, stakeholders, Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, and traditional rulers, shortly before performing the groundbreaking ceremony for a modern Mother and Child health facility at the FSP Clinic Daudu in Guma Local Government Area, LGA, of Benue state.
According to Munduate, “Every child under five years must have its birth registered and have a birth certificate. It is important; If you come to the health facility ensure you have the birth of your child registered at the centre.”
The traditional ruler of the area and Kindred Head of Mbayiar, Chief Oliver Chado lauded UNICEF for supporting his community and thousands of IDPs in Daudu community and its environs through its various interventions.
Speaking after laying the foundation stone of the new Clinic, the Country Representative noted that the global organisation annual supports Benue state with hundreds of thousands of dollars in kind, in different interventions including the health systems among others.
She said, “We do yearly support of several hundreds of thousands of dollars for Benue state, in kind, in different aspects. So we support the health system and we are fully engaged in the immunisation campaigns. That is something we support. We are looking for children who have never received one vaccination. It is important that we find them and we reach them.
“I earlier shared with the women here in the health facility that UNICEF with the support of donors brings the necessary Vitamin A to cover all women and all children in the country. It’s a huge amount of Vitamin A that we bring and the whole idea is that women and children come to have it whenever we have our one week of immunisation.
“We work with partners here in this health facility. Hopefully this year we can also have the birth registration facility so that children are properly registered which is important. When they have to go to school they need to have a birth history.
“Many families in poor condition receive vouchers or cash transfers. It is very important that their children are properly registered. And by putting up this building, we are contributing to amplifying the healthcare service delivery in the Centre.”
