Birth registration across the region of Souss Massa with FAPE and MEPI

 
Moroccan Children’s Trust is pleased to announce that the activities ran by our partner FAPE (Fondation Amane pour la Protection de l’Enfance), in partnership with MEPI (Middle East Partnership Initiative) for the CARE project (Citizen’s Access to Registration), have commenced with roaring success. It is already possible to see a tangible impact on the ground. Thanks to one of the FAPE-MEPI social workers, the first legal decision by a tribunal has been made on a case in the Tata area. Furthermore, the project has made progress in advocating for structural changes. The conversation around birth registration processes is gaining momentum and the project attracts more and more interest on social media. You can see and like the Facebook page here.

In October, the three teams organized nine events across the five provinces. These included initial training sessions with those involved in the birth registration system and awareness raising with the community. The teams facilitated training in Inezgane, Biougra, and Tata by inviting the prosecutors (head of jurisdiction in the province) to present the process of civil registration in a seminar with those involved in civil registration. This was followed by a discussion about the problems with the current system.

The teams also organized and facilitated awareness raising activities with women’s groups in Azrou, Tiznit, Biougra, and Tamanrt and public events in the souks of Tamanrt and Biougra. By running these events, the teams hope to raise awareness about the importance of civil registration and to answer questions about the issues people encounter when attempting to access registration. These events also provided the social workers with a chance to detect challenging or complicated cases in each province and subsequently engage the family to work with them on obtaining registration for their children.

November is set to be another very busy month, with a total of 21 events organized across the five provinces. We look forward to seeing more cases judged, more people talking about birth registration in the Souss and in Morocco, more people stepping forward to learn more about the process, and more people going back to work better equipped to serve the community and its children. Even at this early stage, the goal of seeing all children recognized in society and able to access their rights is looking more achievable.