When a baby is born in the States, they leave the hospital with a birth certificate. But, this is rare in Haiti. There may be “one” hospital or birth center in Haiti that provides birth certificates, but that is rare. In fact, the majority of mothers have a difficult time getting to the proper government areas to get those birth certificates. As a result, children cannot register for school (even if they could afford school) because they don’t have birth certificates.
You may remember the Oske family that we built a house for. We wanted to send all the children to school but found out none had a birth certificate. We had to give Pastor Souffrance money to have them made!
At our Love A Child Birthing Center, we have a way to provide birth certificates. Each baby has a document with all the information on it. Since there are so many babies born each week, Nixon, our Administrator, collects them and each week, he sends them to the next town, Ganthier. Here, they have to be signed and stamped. Then, they are delivered back to our Birthing Center, where mothers return to pick them up!
Note: There is still much violence on the streets in Haiti, and each day we must be careful of anything we do or any place we go. We all live “one day at a time.” We love our Birthing Center!
Sherry