For Immediate Release
Press Release
Ralph Hofelein, USAID Namibia
rhofelein@usaid.gov
Windhoek, 16 September 2022 - The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through its implementing partner Project Hope Namibia (PHN) together with Namibia’s Ministry of Home Affairs launched a civil registration outreach campaign. The campaign focuses on registering undocumented Namibians to acquire national documents, and specifically targets over 4,800 beneficiaries of PHN’s Adherence Retention Project for orphans and vulnerable children.
The Ministry will extend its services to residents during the campaign to provide documents such as birth certificates and Identification Documents (IDs) to undocumented citizens. According to the Namibia Inter-Censual and Demographic Survey of 2016, approximately 10% of the country’s population was undocumented and stateless, thus this campaign is expected to go a long way towards reducing this number.
“Our collaboration with Home Affairs will ensure that all undocumented vulnerable children that are part of the project receive national documents, and I would like to thank the Namibian Government for its unwavering support of this endeavor,” highlighted Dr. Abeje Zegeye from USAID Namibia.
The registration campaign kicked off on 29 August and will end on 23 September 2022 covering Namibia’s Oshikoto, Omusati, Khomas, Ohangwena, Oshana, Zambezi, Kavango West and Kavango East regions. To celebrate this new collaboration, representatives of Home Affairs and the American partner organizations handed over birth certificates and IDs to previously undocumented beneficiaries.
The project which is funded by the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) through USAID was launched in 2013 with a focus on orphans and vulnerable children, including children living with HIV and their respective caregivers. To date, the program has supported more than 100,000 young Namibians who are affected by HIV.
